Willows Farm Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with frequent opportunities to experience the outdoors and fresh air. Regular outings to the farm help children to learn about their world. They observe different animals, learning their names and how they behave. Children develop control and coordination through a range of activities. They balance on planks in the garden and jump in puddles walking around the farm. Babies use the well-placed furniture to balance and develop their early walking. Staff successfully support children to follow the simple rules. Children manage their feelings and behaviour well. They share, take turns and play harmoniously together. Older children work together to create an obstacle course. They are beginning to remind their friends of the rules too.

Children and their families are warmly welcomed into the nursery. Staff are good role models and children benefit from meaningful teaching. Staff know how to build positive attachments with children. For example, they offer children cuddles, reassurance and praise as they play alongside them. This helps children to feel relaxed and safe and engage in new experiences. Children make links to their home lives. They role play cooking and pretend the food is hot. They use oven gloves to take the food out of the oven so as not to burn themselves.

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

• The management team work together closely and are committed to continuously developing the nursery. They have a clear action plan to implement improvements. Staff report that managers consider their well-being, and that they feel happy in their roles. This secures the stability of the team.
• The managers have a strong understanding of the elements of good-quality teaching. Managers are present in the rooms, observing staff interactions and role modelling strong practice themselves. They address any concerns as they arise. Furthermore, each member of staff has targets to achieve to progress their own practice. However, these are not precisely focused well enough on teaching skills to further develop the quality of teaching to a very high level.
• Due to a recent incident on an outing to the farm, the nursery team have reviewed risk assessments and strengthened safety procedures when taking children on this outing. A range of measures are in place to help keep children safe. All children wear day nursery vests, so they can be identified easily on site, as well as coloured wrist bands, so they are clearly grouped. Staff remind children to hold the walking rope and stay together as a group. Staff complete regular head counts to make sure they account for all children.
• Staff have good knowledge about how children learn. They know their key children well and plan interesting experiences for them to learn from. There is a clear focus on helping children embed their learning. For example, staff write letters in chalk to help children become aware of the alphabet. Staff plan activities that complement children's current interests, such as identifying letters on signs correctly as they walk around the farm.
• Children are confident and articulate. They choose to look at books and ask staff to read to them. Staff narrate play and talk to children regularly. However, they do not always provide a wide range of rich and interesting language for children to hear and take in, to extend their vocabulary.
• Staff model good hand control for children to copy. For example, older children manipulate pipe cleaners, twisting them into different shapes, then swish them around to create bubbles. Younger children enjoy exploring textures and using different tools to scoop up cereal and pasta and put it into containers. Children handle cutlery at mealtimes to eat. This helps them strengthen their finger muscles.
• Staff teach children how to keep themselves safe. For example, while using a knife to cut up vegetables for the nursery pets, staff remind children to point the knife downwards.
• Parents report their children enjoy attending the nursery, especially the outings to the farm. They receive a good amount of information from staff about day-to-day activities children have been taking part in. Parents of babies know when they have had their bottles and a sleep. However, parents do not always receive details about how they can help their children's learning and development at home. This means that there is not always continuity of learning for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend professional development opportunities to focus more precisely on building staff teaching skills
• help staff develop the range of language and words to further support children's developing vocabulary
• strengthen communication between staff and parents to support children's learning at home effectively.