Truly Scrumptious Early Years Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff in the nursery are kind and caring towards children. Children settle well and build secure attachments to their key person, including those staff new at the nursery. Staff plan an ambitious curriculum, that enables children to be independent and motivated learners. Children enjoy a range of well-planned activities in a stimulating safe and secure environment. Children thoroughly enjoy small-world activities and develop good early mathematical and writing skills. Staff in the baby room are enthusiastic and responsive to children's needs. Relationships between babies and their key persons are gentle and stimulating.

Staff engage children in meaningful conversations. They use questioning to encourage them to problem solve and think creatively. For example, children work out the resources they could use to make a house linked to a story about three little pigs. Children enjoy listening to stories and staff skilfully use puppets and props to capture their attention. Staff use their voices expressively and invite children to predict what might happen next in the pictures. They also successfully support children's language skills, including children who speak English as an additional language. Staff collaborate with parents and ask them for key words in their child's home language to promote their speech and language development. Overall, staff support children to understand the nursery's simple rules and behave well. Staff treat children with respect, which supports children's emotional well-being effectively.

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

• Children of all abilities, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those in receipt of additional funding, make good progress. Staff carry out accurate assessments of children's capabilities and individual needs. They work closely with parents and other professionals to develop targeted plans for children with SEND. Staff plan challenging learning experiences that cover all areas of the curriculum. This prepares children for moving on to school.
• Staff provide children with opportunities to identify and sort small-world dinosaurs. They encourage children to name and compare their dinosaurs. However, on occasions, staff are not aware of times when some children begin to lose their concentration during free play. They do not consistently use opportunities to help children to regain their focus and participation.
• Staff generally use appropriate strategies to manage children's behaviour. For instance, they use stories and puppets relating to a friendly green monster, to help children to learn how to regulate their emotions. Overall, children's behaviour is good as they share resources and wait for their turn. However, at times, some staff do not fully extend children's awareness of how they can play even more safely. For example, some older children are not fully aware of the rules in the soft-play and sensory area.
• Staff incorporate children's interests into planned activities. For example, toddlers eagerly engage in activities relating to vehicles. Staff enhance children's ideas and bring them to life by adding props, such as ramps and bridges. Children learn to count and develop positional language, such as 'under' and 'over'.
• Staff support children's good health, such as through good hygiene routines at mealtimes and during nappy changing. Staff are also adept at promoting children's independence skills. They encourage older children to manage their self-care needs for themselves and help to tidy up. Children have regular access to fresh air in the well-resourced nursery garden, which contributes to their physical development.
• Staff provide good standards of care that supports babies' and toddlers' personal care needs. They also help to promote children's physical and emotional well-being successfully. Staff provide children with good opportunities to use their senses and explore a range of textures, such as sand, foam and bubbles. Young babies eagerly explore a tray with foam and textured toys. They touch and feel the foam and watch staff in awe who push and roll objects through the foam and create patterns.
• Leaders evaluate the nursery regularly and seek to continuously improve it. They effectively monitor staff's performance to ensure that that teaching and learning are consistently good and support children's progress. Leaders and staff work closely with parents, sharing daily information which supports children's learning and development. Parents express high levels of satisfaction with leaders and staff. They are actively involved in their child's learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's teaching so they promptly respond and regain children's engagement and concentration when they become less focused during their free play
• strengthen children's awareness of how they can play even more safely.