Victoria Park Hall Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled. Staff understand their individual needs and help them to quickly settle and build positive relationships. This is particularly apparent when children are new to the pre-school. Children show that they feel safe and secure. They approach the kind and nurturing staff if they want a cuddle, and they show delight as staff join in with their play.

Children's behaviour is good. Staff have clear expectations of children and are consistent in their approach to managing children's behaviour. For example, staff remind children to use their kind hands, inside voices and looking eyes. They also use every opportunity to praise children through verbal communications, such as good listening, good sharing and nice manners. Children demonstrate high levels of self-assurance and self-esteem.

Children develop a love of stories and songs. There are many times throughout the day that children have these opportunities. They join in with songs at circle time when they choose a prop from the song box. Children show their excitement as they sing along and do the actions to a scarecrow song. Smaller groups of children listen carefully to staff who read books to them. Additionally, staff make good use of the large open park outside the pre-school. They take children into the park on a 'bear hunt', and this brings the story to life and captures children's imagination.

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

• The manager is enthusiastic and dedicated to her role. With input from staff, the curriculum is well planned, sequenced and builds on what children already know and can do. Staff know the stages of development that children are at and what they want them to learn next. Children engage in a good range of activities and learning opportunities throughout the day. They make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff model language effectively and listen to children. They ask questions to encourage children to share their experiences and ideas, and they value children's thoughts and feelings. Staff give children the time they need to process their thinking and answer questions. Furthermore, staff use Makaton signing when they communicate with children. They also work with the local authority on their Tiny Talkers programme. This helps children to develop confident communication and language skills.
• Parents are complimentary about the pre-school. They are happy with the communication they receive from their child's key person. Parents praise the staff for the role they play in helping their children to make good progress in their learning. They like the online system used to maintain two-way communication and enjoy receiving the photographs of their children involved in activities. This joint approach helps staff and parents work together to support children's development.
• Children have exciting and varied opportunities for learning outdoors. They test out their physical abilities, pedalling wheeled toys, and they climb the steps to the slide with confidence. Children use an outdoor tap to fill different vessels. They take the collected water to the outdoor kitchen. They use it to cook, make potions and pour and fill other jugs and bowls. Children also use large bricks to build structures. Staff support children in their play. However, they do not consistently introduce children to mathematical language, such as 'full', 'empty', 'tall' or 'small'. This limits children's early understanding of simple mathematical concepts.
• The manager cares about the well-being of staff, children and families using the pre-school. Staff have regular supervision sessions, and ongoing training opportunities are made available. Additionally, staff attend team meetings to discuss and share their ideas for improvements to the pre-school. The manager encourages staff to observe each other's practice and she carries out her own observations. She models high-quality teaching practice, however, there are inconsistencies in the quality of some staff's teaching skills. This prevents children from making even better progress.
• Children's good health is promoted well in pre-school. Staff teach children about healthy foods and making healthy food choices. They provide children with healthy snacks and encourage children to have regular drinks of water. Staff display information for parents about sugar levels in food. The pre-school has achieved the gold award in Healthy Foundations for children. This includes children practising their oral hygiene and having opportunities to plant, grow, harvest and taste fruits and vegetables.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently use child-led play opportunities to teach children early mathematical concepts and language
• strengthen further existing performance management processes to ensure that teaching is of a consistently high quality across the staff team.