Wallys Day Nursery Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and keen to learn. They display positive attitudes to learning. Children make choices in their play from a wide range of inclusive activities, resources and opportunities staff plan for them. The staff know children well and ensure the things on offer to them meet the varied needs and ages of the children who attend. Settling-in processes are gradual and unhurried. When children first start, staff take time to get to know them individually so that they can offer a continuity of care from home and build secure relationships with their key person and other staff members.

Children learn to do things for themselves. For instance, staff teach children how to dress and undress themselves. They offer guidance and encouragement to children and give them plenty of time to practise these skills. This gives children a sense of achievement. Pre-school children gather their own cutlery and crockery, choose their own snacks from the snack cart and clear away their dirty dishes when they have finished eating.

Children use good manners and interact positively with their peers and staff. They gain valuable social skills for their future lives. Children happily follow the daily routines, such as lining up to go to the bathroom and sitting down with their peers to share a meal. Staff have high expectations of behaviour and focus on teaching children how to play and interact positively.

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

• The provider has worked hard to address actions raised at the previous inspections. Leaders know what they do well and where they need to further develop. Consequently, standards have improved.
• Leaders have promoted further professional development opportunities for staff and reviewed staffing arrangements. They have implemented higher staff to child ratios. This has enabled them to provide more regular supervision and help for staff to develop their knowledge and skills and improve practice. For example, this has resulted in staff supporting children's learning through play more effectively.
• The curriculum is well understood by staff. They plan activities around what they know about children's current level of development and what they have identified that children need to learn next. These next steps are displayed in the rooms to help staff focus on them during children's play. Staff are clear on their own key children's next steps in learning and build on these well during play. Children make good progress and are well prepared for the next stage of their education and eventual move on to school.
• Parents comment that staff keep them well informed about their children's activities and how they are helping their learning. Parents state that their children are making progress, such as developing their social skills well. Staff lend resources and provide parents with home-learning activity packs targeted at children's next steps. This helps parents to extend their children's learning at home.
• Children enjoy listening to stories and singing rhymes. Staff use stories and singing to help embed and extend children's communication and language skills. For example, toddlers enjoy their singing group. They begin to follow the actions of favourite songs, such as holding their hands in the air to represent twinkling stars. Pre-school staff read stories to children throughout the day. They encourage children to join in with the storytelling of familiar books.
• Children show enjoyment playing outdoors and excitedly jump in the puddles with their friends. Toddlers begin to develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills in play. For example, they like pouring water in and out of saucepans and watch with interest as they squeeze small pipettes and see the water flow out. However, staff do not consistently plan opportunities for all areas of children's learning outdoors, such as to support those children who learn best outdoors as well as possible.
• Mathematics is incorporated well into children's play. For example, pre-school children look for numbered fish in the sand area. They count the dots on the fish and then match it to the corresponding number in print. This helps to develop children's counting and number recognition skills.
• Children enjoy their interactions with staff and are, generally, supported in extending their thinking. However, at times, staff miss opportunities to encourage the pre-school children to think critically and try to find solutions to problems as they arise.
• Staff plan many vast, varied and exciting opportunities for children to go on outings throughout the week, such as to woodland and the allotment, to explore the natural environment, learn about safety and widen their knowledge of the world around them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the nursery outdoor area to provide all children, particularly those who prefer to learn outdoors, with more varied and stimulating outdoor learning experiences
• support staff further in allowing opportunities for children to think critically and find solutions to problems for themselves.