Wendy House Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children who attend this nursery are happy, and settle well in this home-from-home environment. All the children mix together at the beginning and end of the day, enabling siblings to play together. Older children develop empathy as they learn to care for the younger ones. This supports the children when they transition through the nursery as they are already familiar with the other staff and children. Children learn from enthusiastic adults. They enjoy activities that help them to develop and build on their existing knowledge. Consequently, all children make good progress in their learning. Children enjoy activities that help them to gain knowledge of festivals in the local community, such as Chinese New Year. They make tiger masks and musical instruments and parade around the pre-school room to Chinese music.

Children develop close relationships with staff and their peers. The experienced baby room staff work hard to settle the babies with lots of cuddles and comforting words. Children develop good self-esteem as they receive encouragement and praise from staff. They are happy to engage visitors in their conversations, explaining what they can do and how they enjoy their time at nursery. Children behave well. They learn to share and take turns in their play. All children make good progress in their learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well.

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

• The nursery benefits from an experienced and knowledgeable management team. The enthusiastic manager continually reviews practice and plans improvements to raise the quality of the provision for children and their families. She recognises the strengths of the staff team and uses them effectively.
• Staff know the children well and plan for their learning. The curriculum is well designed and builds on children's interests to extend their knowledge. For example, staff develop children's interest in the post that is delivered to the nursery. They arrange a trip to the local post office for children to buy stamps. Children write letters and post them back to themselves.
• Staff enhance children's language and communications skills. They engage children in conversation, consistently introducing new words and helping children to repeat them.
• Literacy and mathematics are built into all of the activities. Older children are able to recognise the letters in their name and say the sound of the letter that their name begins with. Some are able to form letters and write their name. Children count in a variety of situations. For example, they count the number of decorations that they have stuck onto their musical shakers.
• Children are well behaved. They learn to share and make firm friendships. This was supported during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown as children who missed their friends were encouraged to use an online system with their parents to leave video messages for each other.
• Children enjoy art and craft activities. Older children concentrate as they decorate and fill bottles to make shakers. They are proud of their achievements. Younger children happily stick coloured shapes onto paper. However, staff do not consistently provide enough opportunities for children to lead their own play or test out their own ideas.
• Older children spend a short time outside. They develop physical skills as they run, jump, climb and balance. However, the outside area is not utilised effectively to enable all children to access fresh air and outdoor play on a daily basis.
• The nursery effectively supports parents and there are good-quality communication systems in place. There is extensive support for parents with children with SEND. The manager attends online training with parents to enable everyone to consistently support children's individual developmental needs.
• Staff supervisions are effective. The manager is aware of the work pressures on staff. As a result, she has changed the amount of observation and assessment carried out on the children in line with the changes to the 'Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage'.
• Staff take part in regular online training to develop their knowledge and skills. They share their learning from training during staff meetings to benefit all staff and enhance their professional development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support adults to provide children with opportunities to lead their own play and explore their own ideas
• utilise the outside area to allow all children to have greater opportunities to play outside on a daily basis.