100 Acre Wood Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff support children's learning and development well. The curriculum provided offers challenge and stimulates the interests of children. Children are keen to get involved in the activities on offer and show positive attitudes to learning.

Staff get to know children from the onset and build strong relationships and bonds with them. Children make good progress in their learning during their time at the nursery and gain a range of skills that aid their eventual move to school. Children are happy and settle well.

Staff are kind and calm with children. They are sensitive to the needs of babies and offer them good physical... and emotional comfort when they need it. Children demonstrate positive behaviour and get on well with one another.

Staff are sensitive to children and work closely with parents to ensure there is a continuity of care from home. Parents are complimentary about the service they receive and comment positively on the regular feedback they get from staff about their child's day. Children develop a good range of independence skills during their time at the nursery.

For example, young babies use spoons to feed themselves, toddlers wash their own hands and pour their own drinks, and older children prepare their own fruit at snack time. Staff promote independence in self-care and encourage children to lead their own play and learning. This helps children persevere as they work hard to achieve things and it gives them a sense of pride in what they can do for themselves.

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

Leaders have worked hard to ensure they maintain good standards and continually reflect on what is working well and what they need to improve. They have worked hard to embed good practice regarding the premises and risk assessment. This ensures all children benefit from quality care and learning.

Staff work in partnership with parents to regularly obtain information from home which they use to complement the planning of activities for children. Staff encourage parents to extend their children's learning at home. For example, parents and children borrow the nursery bear and children share with their peers what they got up to with the bear outside of nursery.

Staff provide well-planned-out, safe and stimulating environments for children. They create spaces and plan activities that reflect children's interests and encourage them to continually develop in all areas of learning. For example, young children have space to roll and partake in 'tummy time', while older babies can cruise around furniture in preparation for starting to walk.

Staff help children develop a love of books. For example, children choose books to take home and share with their families, and pre-school children have cosy spaces to relax in and read books. This supports children's early literacy skills well.

Staff take opportunities as they arise in daily activities to enhance children's counting skills. For example, at fruit time they support children to count the pieces of fruit. This is helping children develop a good knowledge and understanding of number.

However, staff miss some opportunities to widen children's mathematical understanding regarding capacity and measure.Staff promote children's communication and language development well. They place high emphasis on expanding children's vocabularies and find inventive ways to encourage children to speak.

For example, they plan activities that spark children's curiosity and they give good running commentary of children's play. However, at times, staff ask too many questions that require just a one-word answer, and they do not always give children enough time to think and respond.Staff benefit from regular support and supervision from leaders.

They receive frequent feedback about their teaching practice and are given good opportunities to further enhance their professional development. This helps raise staff morale and improves outcomes for children.Children thoroughly enjoy the outdoors.

Staff ensure outdoor areas are stimulating. Pre-school children grow and tend to vegetables on the allotment. This helps them learn about the natural world and where food comes from.

Younger children enjoy watching horses in the neighbouring field. The outdoor areas offer good opportunities for physical play and promote healthy lifestyles.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff understand their responsibilities to keep children safe. Risk assessment is effective and ensures that premises and environments for children are kept clean, safe and secure. Leaders and staff show a good knowledge of child protection issues and know how to respond promptly and appropriately when concerns arise about the welfare of a child in their care.

Staff attend regular safeguarding and child protection training and have good opportunities to refresh their knowledge on a regular basis. Adequate numbers of staff are first-aid trained which allows them to respond swiftly to any accidents and incidents.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: maximise opportunities for mathematical learning to enhance children's spatial reasoning skills, with particular regard to measure and quantity make better use of questioning during children's play and activities to increase their thinking skills and promote their language development further.