Wycombe Hospital Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and feel safe in this close-knit family-oriented nursery. They get all the cuddles they need from attentive staff ,who know them so well. Babies have a wonderful time, as they develop their ability to walk independently while staff praise their achievements. Young children, who speak English as an additional language feel settled, as staff use key words in their home language. Staff have good knowledge of the children's needs and praise them regularly throughout the day. This supports children's confidence and self-esteem.

Children enjoy exploring stories with staff, who bring the characters to life, as they read in a lively tone of voice. Children use story sacks and props to help them act out the stories they know and to make up new adventures. This helps to develop their literacy skills. Children demonstrate that they enjoy the learning opportunities that staff plan to provide appropriate challenge. They become immersed in their play. For instance, toddlers make marks, as they place their cars in the paint and enjoy making tracks. Older toddlers use paint brushes with confidence, as they make marks on the tarmac with water. Pre-school children begin to manage risks. They competently use scissors and learn how to pass them safely to their friends. Children observe wildlife and grow plants, which helps to kindle a keen interest in nature.

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

• Staff have worked incredibly hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. The nursery remained open throughout all lockdowns and parents comment on the dedicated staff team at particularly challenging times. Staff made many changes to the setting to offer children a homely, yet stable learning environment. For example, flexible care to meet work demands for parents. In addition, parent meetings took place outside and to remain safe, this year the Christmas Nativity celebration was held outside for parents to be able to attend.
• Managers pride themselves in creating a home-from-home environment, where all the staff across the nursery get to know all the children. This helps children and their parents to feel a real sense of belonging right from the start.
• Children are well mannered and polite. Staff are good role models for children, saying please and thank you when talking to each other and to children. They give consistent messages about the high expectations they have for children's behaviour.
• Overall, staff support children's language development well. Staff talk with the children, develop their vocabulary, and help them learn to pronounce words correctly. This supports the development of children's communication and language skills. However, staff do not consistently give children time to think and respond to questions asked, to strengthen their development even further.
• Staff work closely with parents to settle children into the nursery. They provide regular updates to parents about their children's day and well-being, and support parents with how to support their child's development at home. For example, staff support parents with information about potty training and pre-school children take a book home to read each week.
• Children develop strong bonds with their key persons, who speak about each child with genuine affection and interest. Staff monitor children's development closely and have a clear intent of what they want children to learn next. Staff put out resources and plan activities, and confidently explain why and how they think these will benefit the children.
• The leadership team have a clear vision for the future of the nursery. Staff comment that leaders are accessible and are on hand to offer well-being assistance as needed. Managers plan a broad and exciting curriculum and know what they want the children to learn in each room. However, staff performance management is not sharply focused on developing staff practice, to raise the quality of the overall provision further.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. For example, they monitor development closely and provide specific activities to support children's development. Staff have developed strong partnerships with other professionals to ensure that children get the required levels of support. Children make good progress in their development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• allow children more time to share their own knowledge, think through their ideas and respond to questions they are asked, to maximise their learning
• strengthen performance management and peer observations to ensure they are more sharply focused on raising the quality of the overall provision.