Woodlands Day Nursery (MK)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

There is a concise, coherent and ambitious curriculum intent at the nursery. Each room has their own focus for what children need to learn. Staff who work in each room understand exactly how to teach children what they need to learn next. Staff recognise children's interests. During the inspection, many children showed a great interest in dinosaurs and staff made sure that there were lots of opportunities for children to explore this. Children identified features of the dinosaurs, such as their big feet and little arms.

Staff promote children's physical development well. Children play outdoors, where they run around expelling energy and testing out what their bodies can do. Indoors, babies climb steps and slide and use furniture to steady themselves when they start walking. The nursery promotes healthy eating and good nutrition. All these activities encourage children's good health. Staff promote children's communication and language development successfully. They model language and use lively songs and rhymes to encourage children to learn and use new words.

Children's behaviour is consistently good. Older children are starting to moderate and manage their feelings. Staff teach children to take turns and to share resources. As children get older, staff focus on helping them to learn to be cooperative. This helps to prepare them well for when they move on to school.

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

• Staff interact positively with babies, repeating words and acknowledging and responding to their early attempts at talking. In the pre-school room, staff promote children's learning of early phonics. They work in partnership with parents and schools to help children to embed what they are learning. Children's learning gives them good foundations for the future. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress at the nursery.
• Staff are not proactive in gathering information from prior settings that children attend. Therefore, they do not have information to aid their plans for children's learning that builds effectively on their previous experiences.
• There are effective plans in place to help children when they experience change, such as moving between rooms at the nursery. Children receive equally good support when they separate from parents each morning. Parents are welcomed into the nursery to speak with their child's key person. Parents express their satisfaction in the care and education that children receive.
• Key-person relationships are strong and staff get to know children and their families well. By finding out about children and their home lives, staff and can celebrate what makes children unique and special. Staff demonstrate sensitivity and respect for children.
• Pre-school age children enjoy trips to the local retirement home, where they meet older generations and learn about the local community and wider world. This fosters children's sense of identity and belonging.
• During forest school activities, children show excitement and eagerness to take part. Staff skilfully teach children about emotions and feelings. During the inspection, children and staff made the face of a giant using sticks on the woodland floor. Children talked at length about how they could make the giant feel happy, such as by smiling at him and giving him a cuddle. Talking about feelings and emotions supports children to emphasise with others.
• The ethos of the nursery is to encourage children to have a voice and express their choice. This simple yet empowering approach supports children to develop into resilient and confident individuals, who can explain their wants and needs. Children choose when they would like to play outdoors and routines are flexible. Children sleep when tired and eat when hungry rather than following an adult determined routine.
• Staff and managers share information with parents about children's care routines. However, they do not always ensure that the information they need to share is understandable for parents. This leaves some parents unclear about children's experiences at the nursery.
• There are comprehensive training opportunities available for staff. Leaders encourage staff to develop professionally and take on further responsibilities. Staff discuss the benefits of this and how it enables them to become more confident and knowledgeable practitioners.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• find out about children's prior learning experiences when they have attended another setting to build on what they already know and can do
• provide parents with clearer, more simple feedback that enables them to understand about children's care routines in the nursery.