Toddletown Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive is this welcoming, happy nursery. Due to the COVID-10 pandemic, parents no longer routinely enter the nursery building. Despite this, children arrive at the nursery with confidence and settle quickly. They demonstrate that they feel emotionally secure. Children greet staff and their friends with excitement as they arrive each day and are keen to share news or information with them.

Children benefit from the authentic resources throughout the nursery. These help to build on their understanding of the world around them. For instance, in the role-play area, children engage with items such as kettles, saucepans, wooden spoons and real vegetables. Children show high levels of interest as they use these items in their play. Children are developing the skills they need in readiness for the next stage in their learning.

Children's behaviour is consistently good. They are friendly and sociable towards others and enjoy being independent and helpful. Babies begin to develop their own interests and make choices about their play. Toddlers confidently use cutlery at mealtimes and ask for more if they are still hungry. All children benefit from excellent staff interactions. Caring staff are well placed at different activities to engage in meaningful conversations with children as they play.

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

• Staff ensure that children have ample opportunity to be outside. Children develop their core strength as they confidently learn to run and balance in the outdoor area. Babies have opportunities, indoors and outdoors, to practise climbing and walking. Indoors, staff encourage them to stand against fixed furniture and cruise around the room.
• Leadership and management are secure. A strong focus is placed on providing an inclusive learning environment for all children. Leaders work very well with directors and ensure that systems for recruitment, induction and training of staff are robust. Leaders engage effectively with parents and their local community. Staff state that they feel thoroughly supported in their roles and that their ideas are valued.
• Staff know children well and are responsive to their individual emotional needs. They monitor their progress and quickly identify any areas where they may need more support. Staff plan a wide variety of exciting activities that broaden children's experiences and take their interests into account. However, staff do not make good use of interactions with children to maximise learning in planned group activities. For example, during a planned activity, support staff sit with children but do not engage with opportunities to support their learning.
• Parents speak highly of staff and managers. They comment that it is a welcoming and supportive nursery and reflect on how happy their children are to attend each day. Parents value the feedback and communication they receive about their children. They feel supported and say that staff go out of their way to make sure that all children feel confident and secure at the nursery.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported very well. The manager and deputy are passionate about meeting their needs. They have built good partnerships with outside professionals to provide support for children with SEND. Staff go out of their way to include children in every way possible. Adaptations are quickly put in place to support all children's needs.
• Leaders and managers promote reflective practice. Staff engage in regular training sessions, online and face to face, to support staff develop their practice. However, feedback is not always specific enough to help individual staff improve their skills and knowledge further.
• Staff provide children with lots of opportunities to be creative and to explore different materials. Children happily choose from the resources. For example, children smile and laugh together as they have fun mixing cereal and water in the tray during messy play.
• Staff encourage children to think about each other's feelings. They use 'colour monsters' to help children to explore their emotions. Staff promote opportunities for self-regulation in children. For example, when running indoors, children are reminded of the rules but that they can run outside. This helps to empower children to make a choice about their behaviour and understand the rules of the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's interactions with children to maximise learning in group activities
• provide staff with accurate feedback to help them to raise the quality of education to the highest level.