Your Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the nursery often with little experience of being away from parents and/or carers. The kind and friendly staff help children to settle into the nursery, offering reassuring physical comfort, such as cuddles. Children develop trusting relationships with staff. They gain the confidence to explore the interesting environment and activities on offer. Children delight in playing in the garden, where they develop their large-muscle control and learn about how plants grow.

Staff are good role models for children. They model appropriate social behaviours, such as using their manners and being kind and gentle towards one another. Children learn to tolerate others. Staff offer children lots of praise when they try hard to do new things. This helps children to be positive about their play and learning.

The setting places a great deal of emphasis on supporting local families. They provide a 'Swap Shop' where clothing and other useful items can be donated and repurposed. Children and their families also benefit from a lending library, which helps them to access books to share and read at home. Additionally, staff explore sustainability and consider how to lessen the negative impact the nursery has on the environment. Children are guided to take care of one another and their world.

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

• The provider ensures that new and existing staff receive the coaching and support they need. For instance, they benefit from a staff manual, a mentor and supervision sessions. These ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities. The setting places emphasis on supporting staff well-being. For example, the provider offers staff meals and care packages. This develops a culture of appreciation and promotes staff happiness, which impacts positively on children.
• The nursery curriculum has been designed to support all children from their varying starting points and ensure they learn vital knowledge to support their onward education. Staff understand how to assess children's progress. They consult with parents about their view of children's development and plan individual learning targets. This means children make progress in their learning.
• Staff access a range of mandatory training to ensure they can carry out their job roles and care for children well. Staff are less knowledgeable about the overall aims of the curriculum. The provider has not equipped them to deliver all parts of the curriculum effectively. This means that, occasionally, children do not learn what it is the provider intends.
• Children's communication and language skills are supported well. Staff introduce children to vocabulary as they carry out care routines and deliver adult-led activities. Babies enjoy looking at books with staff and learn simple words, such as eyes. Older children learn to use new words in their own attempts to communicate. For example, they explain to others that they need to go 'down the slide and under the tunnel'. Children develop age-appropriate language and literacy skills.
• Staff enable children to develop some school readiness skills. For instance, they successfully promote good hygiene practices. As such, children learn to wash their hands before meals and after using the toilet. However, at times staff are too quick to step in to complete tasks for older children that they are capable of managing themselves. For example, the children are not supported to collect their own equipment for mealtimes and are not helped to apply their own sun protection cream. Children's independence skills are not fully promoted.
• Staff work closely with a range of outside agencies to provide appropriate support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff put in place individual education plans for children with SEND. This helps them to make progress in their learning and development.
• Partnerships with parents are well developed. Staff provide parents with regular summaries of children's learning. Furthermore, staff consider how to support parents to extend learning at home. For example, book sacks are lent to parents to share with their children at home. Parents are well informed about their children's care and education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's knowledge of the curriculum, to further enhance and extend children's learning
• strengthen staff's knowledge of how to develop children's independence so that children gain the skills they need to support their onward education.