Toad Hall Nursery Haslemere

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly and feel secure in this warm, friendly and caring environment. Children show that they enjoy their time at nursery. For example, they smile, giggle and talk excitedly with staff and other children about their day. Children separate confidently from parents and carers. They form strong bonds with staff, and children snuggle into staff for story time.

Children show positive attitudes to their learning and make good progress. Staff skilfully organise the environment to promote children's natural curiosity and eagerness to learn. Children benefit from a good range of experiences, which prepare them well for their future success. For example, babies have a go at feeding themselves with spoons. Older children develop their physical skills well during outside play. For example, they handle utensils in the mud kitchen, throw beanbags skilfully and ride scooters around a racetrack.

Staff are positive role models and reinforce their expectations of children's behaviour very well. They use a fair and gentle approach. For example, staff talk to children about how to solve disagreements and explain about emotions. As a result, children are well behaved and follow the nursery routine well. Staff recognise children's efforts and offer lots of praise when they succeed. Children respond to this positive reinforcement well. This helps to boost children's confidence and self-esteem.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Staff support children to be independent in their self-care. For example, children wash their hands and wipe their own noses. Staff discuss with children about 'catching their coughs' and to put their tissue in the bin. They take turns to self-serve their food and understand when food is hot and what they can do next. Older children discuss with staff the different food groups that their lunch contains. For example, children say: 'We have chicken. Chicken is a protein. It is good for repairing our bodies'. Staff extend children's knowledge through further questions so they learn about other food groups on their plates, such as carbohydrates.
• Parents are happy with the settling-in process. They talk about the progress their children make and how discussions with staff are detailed. Parents receive development reviews, which highlight the positive experiences their children have. Parents comment on how supportive the staff are and how they feel their children are well cared for. Parents appreciate the information events the nursery holds, such as the transition to school event, so they understand how to apply for a school place and how to support their child to be prepared for school.
• The support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who speak English as an additional language, is a strength of the nursery. Staff quickly identify children who need additional support. They work effectively with parents and other professionals to put targeted strategies in place, tailored to children's needs and preferences. Staff learn sign language and keywords in children's home languages as they play games and sing songs together. As a result, children feel included and make good progress in their learning and development.
• Older children develop good communication and language skills. Staff engage in conversation with older children as they play, introducing new words to increase their vocabulary. For example, staff introduce the words 'Antarctica' and 'evaporation', as children excitedly try to melt ice with salt to rescue trapped penguins. Occasionally, some staff do not ask questions or add in vocabulary to fully extend younger children's learning skills as they play. This means not all learning opportunities for younger children are of a consistently high quality.
• Children have good opportunities to visit places of interest in the local community and learn about different cultures, religions and beliefs. For example, children thoroughly enjoy growing vegetables to use for cooking a meal, and celebrate Chinese New Year by food tasting and trying Chinese dancing. Staff regularly discuss people's similarities and differences while out on trips and through stories. Children share celebrations with local residents and are encouraged to engage in acts of kindness, such as giving flowers to a local resident and donating food to the local church for Harvest festival.
• The management team evaluates the provision effectively. They carry out supervision sessions with staff and check in on their well-being in regular team meetings. Staff are supported to use resources, such as online training, to support their ongoing professional development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff knowledge and understanding of strategies to promote children's language skills, so they are consistently of high quality.