Toybox Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in the nursery among inspirational staff who promote their social and thinking skills through a highly ambitious curriculum. Children are immersed in expertly planned activities and spellbinding storytelling. This fuels their imagination and inspires them to be motivated learners. This is evident when they dress up and act out elaborate narratives of their own. From babies to pre-school children, the children display exceptionally high levels of engagement and focus as they excitedly join in with nursery rhymes, stories and activities. These are precisely designed to be sufficiently difficult to encourage children to persevere but not so hard as to make it impossible for them to succeed. As a result, children take great pride in their achievements.

Children feel thoroughly at home in the nursery. They are fully familiar with the routines, have wonderfully strong bonds with their key persons and know what is expected of them. As the children progress through the nursery, their social skills develop with a focus on turn-taking and receiving information as a group. Children learn to take and manage risks through activities and challenges designed to allow them to test their abilities and develop their self-confidence and awareness. The tremendous support children get to promote their emotional well-being, and the outstanding progress that they make, prepares them as well as possible for the next stage in their education.

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

• The tremendous success of this provision lies in the precision of the planning, which reflects children's unique and evolving needs, and in the expert interactions of staff. Leaders and staff have designed an ambitious, highly effective and well-sequenced curriculum that provides all children with an excellent start on their learning journeys.
• Communication within the nursery is excellent. Staff work closely together to decide on daily activities with their key children's current needs and next steps in mind. They confidently seek support from each other and leaders and provide thorough handovers when children progress through the nursery. This contributes to children seamlessly moving up through the nursery and prepares them for the next stage in their education. Staff are highly motivated and encouraged to undertake training. This learning is shared among the team and used to enrich and develop the environment.
• Children's behaviour is exemplary. This is fostered from excellent role models and demonstrated by children's high levels of awareness that their actions have consequences. Children are exceptionally considerate and kind towards each other. For instance, older children are quick to invite new children to join in their play.
• Babies and toddlers receive expert care from staff, who nurture and teach them while following their interests and developing their independence, communication and language skills. For example, they learn to take turns when choosing nursery rhymes depicted on wooden spoons and squeal with delight when it is a familiar song. They excitedly join in and remain captivated for an impressive amount of time. For example, staff stop at appropriate times and children promptly fill in the 'quack quack' in a popular song. Mealtimes are highly social occasions, and children receive patient encouragement to feed themselves.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are highly included. Through meticulous assessment, staff swiftly identify gaps in children's learning and development. They actively and effectively seek support from specialist staff and design activities to promote their development and integration. Specialist staff liaise very effectively with other professionals when required to support children's individual needs.
• Staff support children's understanding of the world exceptionally well through the nursery's active engagement with representatives from around the community and visits from family members from different cultural backgrounds. This is enhanced by activities such as creating self-portraits to help the children's understanding that we are all different but equally important and valued. This helps children to gain a thorough understanding of cultures and diversity, preparing them for life in modern Britain.
• Leaders and staff develop and make use of very strong relationships with parents to ensure that all children receive fully cohesive care and education. Parents speak very highly of the nursery and staff and praise the support and advice they have received to keep them informed of their child's progress and how they can continue this at home. This creates consistency for children, as strategies deployed in the nursery continue at home.