Westside Day Nursery Ltd - Footsteps

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children feel safe and secure and enjoy good relationships with staff. Babies celebrate taking their first steps with hugs and cheers from their key person, who stays close by to catch them if they fall. Older children are engaged in their learning and enjoy talking to staff as they play. They roll the play dough together and think about how they can roll it flat. Staff help them to be curious by asking, 'I wonder what would happen if…'

Children confidently make choices as they play. They use a choosing box to tell adults what they want to do next. This helps them to be actively involved in their own learning and develops their communication and language skills. Children behave well. Toddlers and pre-school children play together in the garden, taking turns. They delight as they say 'three, two, one... go' and press the pump to see the water spray out. Staff think carefully about children's individual needs. They plan effectively to help children make good progress across all areas of learning.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, parents have not been coming into the setting. The manager explains that they are inviting parents to start coming to 'stay-and-play' sessions, following the lifting of restrictions. Parents comment on the excellent communication from staff and talk about the progress their children are making at the setting.

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

• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make excellent progress. Skilled staff work closely with parents and other professionals to find out what children know and can do. They plan exciting activities that develop children's social and communication skills. For example, children take turns with staff to create a tower, repeating 'my turn', 'your turn'. When the tower is complete, they are encouraged to give staff eye contact before being rewarded with a ball to post through the tower.
• Staff use observation and assessment to understand what children know now and what they need to learn next. For example, at lunchtime, pre-school children use the tongs to serve themselves. Staff recognise that they are ready for this next step and know how it will help them to become more independent.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. They teach children new words, which they use in their play. Children talk about the spiders, slugs and worms they find and enjoy showing staff, who share in their excitement. Staff sing 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' to babies as they explore a book about animals. However, staff working in the toddler and pre-school rooms do not take full advantage of activities to help promote children's early reading and love of books.
• Managers and staff have high ambitions for all children. They find out how best to support children who are in receipt of early years pupil premium funding by thinking about children's individual needs. They use the funding to help to fill any gaps in children's learning.
• Managers help staff to find out what works well in the nursery and what can be improved. For example, they identified that children were not using the writing area, so they made it more interesting. They help staff to develop their practice through training and supervision discussions. However, targets for staff development are not focused sharply enough on helping them raise their teaching practice to the highest standard.
• Managers and staff know families well and work hard to support them. For example, they work with parents who speak English as an additional language to help them to understand what their children are learning at nursery.
• The setting has a good understanding of what help and support is available locally. For example, the local outreach service visits to support children with SEND. With parents' permission, staff share information with local services to support families and help children to make the best possible progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the range of activities to help pre-school children and toddlers further develop their love of reading
• strengthen the arrangements for professional development to provide staff with clear targets so that they can improve their teaching practice even further.