Wellingborough Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are welcomed into this nurturing nursery by warm and welcoming staff. They enter with confidence and are eager to start their day. Staff build strong relationships with children in their care. Babies are given cuddles and reassurance, which helps them to feel safe and secure. Older children quickly find their named pegs and hang their belongings up. They happily greet staff and their friends and quickly settle in.

Children lead their own play in this well-resourced nursery. Outside, older children arrange planks of wood to build an assault course. Staff encourage them to hold their arms wide as they balance along the beams. Toddlers take part in a scooping and pouring activity to help them develop their small-muscle skills. Babies enjoy dancing along to action songs. They excitedly clap and wave their arms saying 'clap, clap'. This supports children's physical development and their emerging communication and language development.

Staff prioritise supporting children's personal, social and emotional development. Children's behaviour is well supported by calm and consistent staff. Staff successfully enhance children's social skills, which can be seen when children play together, share resources and take turns. Children learn about emotions and how their actions can affect others through activities such as matching emotions to colours. Staff offer children lots of praise and give them a 'high five' for their achievements. This builds children's self-esteem and well-being.

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

• The manager and her team have created a well-balanced curriculum that covers all seven areas of learning. They use a blend of adult-led activities and child-led play to ensure that children achieve their next steps in learning. This supports children to make good progress in all areas of development.
• Staff engage enthusiastically with children as they play and learn. However, on occasions, some staff do not fully consider how to support and extend children's learning through their interactions. For example, when children play with model insects in the soil, staff do not extend their learning about minibeasts.
• The special educational needs coordinator is new to the role. She is extremely proactive and has quickly made links with other professionals and accessed additional funding. She works closely with children's key persons to provide tailored plans that meet their individual needs. As a result, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported.
• Children are encouraged to be independent in their self-care skills. For instance, younger children and babies are supported to feed themselves. Older children know to tidy away and wash their hands before eating. Staff support their understanding of hygiene by talking about washing the germs away.
• Staff support children to understand and explore the effect that physical exercise has on their bodies. Children take part in high-energy group sessions and calming activities, such as yoga. Staff encourage them to feel their heartbeat after each activity and compare the differences. The nursery cook provides children with well-balanced, nutritious meals and snacks to support them to continue to follow a healthy lifestyle.
• Information is gathered from parents when children first start. Staff collect information through settling-in visits and an 'All About Me' form. They talk to parents daily about their children's care needs and ensure that these are met. Overall, children settle into the nursery well. However, staff do not seek further information about children's interests to support those children who do struggle to settle.
• Staff support children to learn about other cultures through planned activities and books. However, staff do not use children's own cultural backgrounds effectively to support children to learn about each other. This does not support children's understanding and appreciation of different people.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff ask parents for keywords and use visual prompts. They speak clearly and use simple signing to support all children's communication and language. Books and songs are well used and enjoyed by children every day.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents know their children's key person and talk to them daily. They feel supported and able to ask for advice and guidance should they need it. Parents say that their children are happy and excited to attend the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the system of ongoing support for staff, to help them to improve their interactions with children and raise the quality of education further
• use information from parents more effectively to support children who struggle to settle
• support staff to use children's own backgrounds to develop children's understanding and appreciation of diversity.