Wyeside Day Nursery and Out of School Care Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children who attend this setting are warmly welcomed by kind, caring staff, who know them well. Staff are attentive to every child's individual needs. They recognise when children need a little extra support and provide cuddles and reassurance if children become upset. As a result, children are happy and quickly settle to their chosen activities. Staff implement a curriculum that is based on children's individual development needs and interests. Children explore a range of interesting activities, across all the areas of learning, that capture their attention and motivate them to take part. Staff monitor children's progress and swiftly implement additional strategies and support if they identify any gaps in children's learning.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They act as positive role models and explain to children how their behaviour may impact on others. Older children learn about emotions and use books and props to talk about how they feel. Children learn about the local community in which they live. They go on trips to the shops and walks in the neighbourhood. They develop respect as they visit the cathedral to look at the Remembrance Day poppies and learn about cultures and celebrations that are different to their own.

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

• The setting benefits from a strong, knowledgeable, and dedicated leadership team. They have a good overview of the curriculum and know what they want children to learn. They are passionate about helping every child to reach their full potential before they move on to the next stage in their learning journey.
• Leaders are supportive of the staff team. Emphasis is put on staff's professional development and staff attend training to further develop their own skills base. Leaders monitor staff practice and provide regular supervisions, where staff can discuss all aspects of their work or any concerns they may have. Staff say that they feel very supported and valued by leaders and that their well-being is given high priority. As a result, staff turnover is low, and the staff team are cohesive.
• The premises are well-maintained, clean and safe. They are decorated to provide a calm, relaxing environment. Daily routines, such as nappy changing and sleeping, are monitored closely. Children are afforded privacy and respect during nappy changing and staff are attentive when checking sleeping children. Staff attend safer sleeping training and are aware of the need for physical as well as visual checks. This helps to ensure children's comfort and safety.
• Staff ensure that any allergies, dietary, or medical needs are strictly adhered to. These are confidentially displayed in each room to ensure they are known and understood by anyone working with the children. Children enjoy healthy snacks and home-cooked meals. However, on occasions, snack and mealtimes are not organised well enough. Children sometimes spend time sitting and waiting for the food to arrive, or wandering around after snack times looking for things to occupy them while other children are still eating.
• Children thoroughly enjoy taking part in the activities. Babies use their senses as they explore cereals with their hands and bare feet. They shout with glee as staff scrunch and sprinkle cereals for babies to touch. Older babies hunt in shaving foam for the polar animals that staff have hidden for them to find.
• Older children enjoy spending time outdoors. They wrap up warmly as they independently put on their own coats and wellingtons before going out into the snow. Children take part in physical activities where they shake, jump and stamp as they sing. Following children's interest in birds, staff introduce activities for children to make bird feeders. Children carefully mix lard and seeds together and press them into pots before placing them around the garden for the birds to eat. However, there are times when some staff do not extend activities as well as they could to fully promote children's learning experiences.
• Children's communication and language is given high priority. Staff continually introduce new words and vocabulary to help promote children's speech. Children enjoy looking at books, listening to stories and joining in with rhymes and songs.
• The support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is a real strength of this setting. Staff are attentive to each individual child's needs and work tirelessly to ensure they are fully integrated into activities and daily routines. Leaders and staff work closely with outside professionals and parents to ensure every child receives the very best care and support so that they make the progress they are capable of.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Parents are provided with information about their child's learning and how they can continue with this at home. Parents comment extremely positively about the care that their children receive. They say that the setting is like a second home, that staff's hard work and dedication to the children can be clearly seen and that children's progression is amazing.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider the organisation of snack and lunchtimes to prevent children from waiting for periods of time and to make them more social occasions
• support staff to recognise when to extend activities even further so that children get the very best from their learning.