Wivenhoe Park Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in this inclusive nursery. The key-person system and settling-in procedures ensure that children settle quickly. Babies benefit from nurturing relationships with staff. They enjoy cuddles with them and give eye contact when having their bottles as staff gently sing to them. Other babies beam as they play a game of 'peek-a-boo' with familiar adults. Staff ensure that each child feels welcome. For instance, during group time, children are welcomed by the 'hello song' with the use of each child's name in the song.

Leaders have created areas in each room to help children manage their own feelings. When children have disagreements, staff sensitively encourage them to share their feelings and help children identify how to resolve these issues themselves. As a result, children generally play harmoniously together.

Leaders design a curriculum that builds on what children already know and can do. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported. The special educational needs coordinator is passionate about her role and has a good understanding of her responsibilities. She works closely with families and other professionals to ensure that individual learning plans provide the right support. This means that all children make good progress from their starting points.

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

• Since the last inspection, the provider has notified Ofsted of some significant events where there were breaches of the statutory requirements. The notification means that the provider met their legal responsibility as set out in the 'Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage' to notify Ofsted of significant events. The provider has reviewed these incidents and taken action to address the breaches of requirements.
• Staff plan opportunities to help children become independent. For example, babies are supported to use cutlery to eat their lunch. Older children successfully self-serve their food at mealtimes and scrape their plates when they are finished. Staff encourage children to manage their self-care needs, such as wiping their own noses and washing their hands independently. This helps support children to develop the skills they need in the future, including readiness for the next stage of learning.
• Overall, staff support children to understand the routines of the day. They use visual timetables so that children understand what comes next. However, staff do not always consider the organisation of mealtimes and some activities to meet the needs of all children. For example, some children are expected to wait for extended amounts of time for parts of their meals to arrive. As a result, these children become disengaged and restless.
• Children benefit from interactive storytelling throughout the day. Staff read with intonation to keep children interested and engaged. They use this time to help children recognise their feelings and emotions. For instance, staff talk to the children about feeling scared as they discuss the monster in a story. These meaningful discussions help children to develop a love of books and develop their talking and listening skills. Staff role model and extend children's language effectively. For example, when toddlers use single words, staff repeat these back, adding extra words to the sentence. This helps younger children to learn new words. Staff and children use Makaton sign language to support the development of spoken language for those children who need additional support.
• The leadership team is passionate about providing a high-quality service. All staff report they feel supported and enjoy their work. They receive regular supervision meetings and complete training to enhance their knowledge. However, some staff require further support to raise the quality of their interactions with children to consistently high levels, so that all children can make the most of the learning opportunities on offer.
• Parents are extremely pleased with the progress their children make at the nursery. They appreciate the excellent communication they receive about their children's development. They comment that children with SEND are supported well to make the same good progress. Parents appreciate that staff celebrate their cultural festivals which are important to them. This helps children learn about each other's similarities and differences.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the organisation of routines and activities to ensure that children do not have prolonged periods of inactivity
• support all staff who work directly with children to continue to develop their interactions and raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high level.