Toddler Town Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children learn to be confident and independent at this nursery. Staff support them to do things for themselves and take responsibility for keeping the environment clean and tidy. Staff develop good relationships with children and families. They gather information about children before they start, which helps them to get to know children well at the earliest opportunity. Staff provide comfort and reassurance to children, which helps them to feel safe and secure.

Children make friends with their peers. They engage in play with other children and are supported by staff to cooperate and consider the needs of others. Staff remind children of the rules to follow and support them to develop respectful relationships.

Leaders are ambitious for all children. They focus on getting children ready for their next stage of learning. Children are highly engaged and motivated to learn. They are keen to explore the range of activities on offer, and they develop their concentration skills as they persevere with tasks they find difficult. Leaders and staff create spaces in playrooms that incorporate all areas of learning. Children have access to a large soft-play facility on site, where they develop their large-muscle skills and learn to navigate space. The area is secure for children, and staff supervise them well to ensure they are safe.

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

• The leadership team members are passionate and committed to enhancing experiences for children. They have a good overview of the nursery and accurately identify where improvements are needed. They support staff and monitor practice closely. Leaders ensure that they spend time with staff in rooms and observe their interactions with children. They identify further training for staff to attend, and they monitor the impact of this. Staff feel supported by leaders and clearly understand their roles and responsibilities.
• Children follow well-established routines. They know that they sit for a story before going to wash their hands ready for lunch. However, there are times of the day when the organisation of activities and routines does not always meet the needs of all children. For example, children sometimes struggle to join in activities because the positioning of chairs and tables makes this difficult. As a result, some children do not benefit from the learning intended for them.
• Children become effective communicators. Staff frequently sing songs during the daily routine. Children join in with welcome songs to greet their friends and choose other familiar rhymes to sing. Staff read familiar books with children and help them to recall events in the story. Children enjoy making sound effects and confidently retell the sequence of events. Leaders purchase books in a range of languages for children who speak English as an additional language. This helps all children to develop their communication and language skills.
• Staff plan a range of exciting activities for children. Children have opportunities to explore different materials and textures, build from different resources and learn how to develop empathy as they care for the resident bunnies. There are times, however, when staff caring for younger children do not always fully consider their developmental stages. For example, staff plan some writing activities that are more suited to the developmental capabilities of older children. That said, children have plenty of opportunities to engage in other, more exploratory play as an alternative option.
• Children enjoy being creative and imaginative. They enjoy dressing up and often choose to engage in 'messy' activities. They discover what happens when bath bombs dissolve in water, and they make marks with paint in trays with various tools. As a result, children learn to make links in their learning and develop their senses.
• Relationships with parents are a strength. Staff get to know children and families well. Children settle quickly and make good progress as a result of their attendance at nursery. Parents comment about the smooth transition and consistency as children move between the toddler and pre-school rooms. Parents are happy with the communication they receive daily and are supported to further their children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of activities and routines so that they meet the needs of all children
• enhance staff's knowledge of the developmental stages of younger children, so that they always plan suitable activities for them.