University Of Nottingham Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children's personal, social and emotional development is given priority, especially when they first start attending. Staff invite parents and children to attend taster sessions. This helps children to become familiar with staff and the environment and to feel safe and secure before they are separated from parents. Children show close relationships with staff. They sit on their knee and cuddle into them for comfort. Children behave well, are kind and helpful. Four-year-old children fetch their friends scissors to use, so they have a pair each. Two-year-old children help staff to sweep up rice off the floor.

Staff plan experiences to help children progress in their learning, such as to develop their mathematical skills. For example, staff ask children to recall how to make dough. Children show their understanding of measure and quantity and say that they use two cups of flour and one cup of water. When children ask staff how to make their dough flat, they show a positive attitude to learning new skills. For example, staff show them how to use a rolling pin. Children show a good imagination. For example, three- and four-year-old children work as a team to pull string that has a wooden log attached to the end. They confidently tell visitors that it is a 'log dog' and pretend to take it for a walk.

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

• The manager and senior staff invite staff to attend meetings to discuss their practice and well-being. Staff attend in-house training that helps them to identify how to look after themselves, so they are able to care for children effectively. Staff say that this training helps them to be their best self.
• Some staff who work with the older children have completed forest school training. They take children into woodland where they provide opportunities for them to explore, investigate and to be creative. Staff help children to learn what a fire needs to survive. When staff light the fire, they encourage children to take part from a safe distance. Children pretend that the spark to ignite the fire is a dragon sneezing.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language skills well. They introduce new words for older children to learn. For example, when children play musical instruments and explore how sounds can change, staff introduce words such as crescendo and diminuendo. They explain to children what the words mean. However, occasionally, not all children who speak English as an additional language are supported as effectively. Some staff do not promote children's home language at nursery to support their language development.
• Staff share information with parents about children's learning, achievements and care routines. They support parents to continue their children's learning at home. For example, staff encourage parents to read stories to children to help them to develop a love of books.
• Staff do not always plan the environment effectively to encourage children to make independent choices in their play. They use gates to partition areas in some of the rooms. These are often closed, thereby restricting children's access to other resources that are available.
• Staff promote positive behaviour. For example, they clap their hands to praise younger children's achievements. Staff give children stickers to praise and support them through toilet training.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to learn about oral hygiene to extend their knowledge of healthy practices. They provide children with their own toothbrushes and ask them to clean their teeth after lunchtime. Staff read children stories about a dentist and ask them questions that encourages them to think. For example, staff ask, 'What happens when you sit in the chair?'
• Staff plan experiences to help children to progress and to learn skills that will help them in the future. When they take children for forest school sessions, children learn how they can keep themselves safe. For example, children say that they are not to touch nettles because they will sting them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's understanding of how to support language development for children who speak English as an additional language
• support staff to provide children with further opportunities to make independent choices in their play.