Waingels Gardens Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and arrive at the nursery eager to learn. They form warm relationships with the staff caring for them. Children enjoy being praised for their efforts, achievements and positive behaviour. This helps to promote their self-esteem and confidence. Children show that they feel safe and secure and they demonstrate a strong sense of belonging. For example, they happily chat to staff and visitors to the setting.

Children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning. They are eager to find out new things and they listen with interest. For instance, during gardening activities, they talk about the flowers on the plants turning into tomatoes and strawberries. Staff ask children questions to identify any misconceptions. This is demonstrated when children are asked what they need to do to make the green raspberries red. Children suggest that they could paint them. Staff use these opportunities to explain that the sunshine will help them to ripen and turn red.

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

• The manager and staff have been proactive in getting to know the children after absences due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Discussions with parents and baseline assessments help them to understand each child's learning needs. On the whole, children benefit from a good range of activities across all areas of the curriculum. However, staff do not always use what they know about children's current knowledge and abilities to focus their teaching precisely on what children would most benefit from learning next.
• The ambitious nursery manager is dedicated to his role in developing the practice. He is committed to providing high-quality, inclusive care and education for all children and their families. He successfully evaluates the nursery to identify strengths and weaknesses. Regular staff supervisions enable him to identify the strengths in staff's practice. He uses this information to provide ongoing training and support. However, there is scope to develop this further to help raise the teaching to an even higher level.
• The curriculum and care practices meet the needs of the range of children who attend. All children, including those learning English as an additional language, make good progress from their starting points. Children are happy, settled and show good levels of emotional well-being. Staff respond quickly when children need additional emotional support, such as a cuddle or reassurance.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. The manager and staff use effective communication methods to share information with them. Parents speak very highly of the staff and report how well their children are developing within the nursery.
• The manager has high expectations for children's behaviour. Children are encouraged to be kind to others and use good manners. Most children are enthusiastic and motivated to learn. Staff working with older children interact well with them. Staff communicate effectively, provide a narrative, and introduce new words as children play. However, some staff working with the younger children do not always interact as well as they could with them. As a result, some children get easily distracted, which occasionally impacts on their concentration and learning.
• Staff effectively incorporate mathematics into the curriculum. Children readily use mathematics in everyday play. For example, they count the number of leaves and apples that have fallen from the trees.
• Staff effectively promote children's health and well-being. Children experience fresh air and outdoor learning daily. They play in the garden and use physical play resources with confidence. They make marks with paintbrushes and water and have great fun as they pretend to make apple pies in the mud kitchen. Children benefit from healthy meals and snacks and confidently talk about making healthy food choices.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus more on what children need to learn next and consider how to implement this into all activities
• make the most of all opportunities to engage with the younger children in order to help encourage them to focus and concentrate during play
• further develop staff's training and support to help raise the teaching to a higher level.