Apricot Nursery and Jumping Jacks After School and Holiday Club

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Staff help children to feel safe and secure in the nursery. They take time to get to know them well. Staff are kind and loving and make children feel welcomed and respected.

Babies form strong bonds with their key person and actively seek them out for cuddles when tired or unsettled. Children leave their parents easily and settle well. However, teaching skills among staff are variable in the nursery, especially within pre-school.

This means that children are not consistently receiving the quality of education they deserve. Children do not always receive appropriate challenge in their learning as some activities lack purpo...se and are not delivered in a way that excites and motivates them to learn.Children understand and can follow the rules and routines of the nursery well.

Staff give children constant praise and encouragement for their achievements, which effectively helps to raise their self-esteem and confidence. Children behave well and engage in activities that promote their turn taking and listening skills, such as story times and group games. Staff support older children to think and use their memory skills as they try to work out what is missing from a tray of objects.

All children spend quality time outdoors on a daily basis to benefit their health and physical well-being.

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

Leaders have not established a clear curriculum that staff understand and can implement effectively. Instead, staff use what they know about typical child development to plan children's next steps in learning.

Key persons have input into the planning of activities, but these do not really truly reflect what it is that individual children know and need to learn next. With variations in staff skills and knowledge, and without an embedded curriculum, there is little consistency to ensure that all children are given the very best support in their learning.Leaders fully recognise the areas they need to develop in order for children to have consistent quality learning experiences.

Many of the staff team are quite new to the nursery and new staff teams are being implemented in each room. Leaders are beginning to be more consistent in their monitoring of staff practice and supervision meetings. However, these systems to support staff's professional development are not yet robust enough to help raise the quality of teaching overall.

Staff have formed effective relationships with parents, where they work closely together to meet children's needs. Parents are well informed about their child's time in the nursery and receive regular updates about their children's progress. Initiatives, such as a book borrowing scheme, help parents further support their children's communication and language development at home.

Parents speak very positively about the setting.Staff quickly recognise those children who need additional support in their learning. They provide tailored care to meet their needs and work closely with parents and other agencies involved in their lives, to meet their specific targets and help them make progress.

Staff understand the importance of focusing on children's communication and language. They talk to children as they play, introducing new words, such as empty and full, to toddlers as they fill containers with dough. Staff sing with babies, who try to join in and put familiar actions to the words.

However, on a few occasions, staff are sometimes too quick to provide an answer when they ask a question.Staff help children to become independent. They teach them how to dress and toilet themselves.

Toddlers learn to blow their own noses and dispose of tissues in the bin. At mealtimes, older children pour their own drinks, serve themselves and scrape their leftovers from their plates. These types of activities help to prepare children for everyday life.

The nursery is safe and secure, and a process of risk assessment is in place. Staff help children to understand how to keep themselves safe, such as when walking up and down stairs, and ask them to consider what might happen in certain situations. Staff support babies in their risky play, as they help them climb and negotiate a low obstacle course.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Safeguarding is a key focus of the nursery and staff complete regular training to keep their knowledge of child protection issues up to date. Staff understand their responsibilities to keep children safe.

They are alert to changes in children's personalities and family life and know the procedures for reporting their concerns within the nursery and to appropriate agencies where needed. Appropriate procedures are in place to check the suitability of adults working with children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date develop an ambitious curriculum to ensure that it clearly identifies what it is that all children need to learn, how this reflects their individual needs and offers appropriate challenge, to help them make at least good progress 20/12/2023 provide effective support, coaching and training to all staff to enable them to improve their practice and to ensure that they offer quality learning and development experiences for all children.

20/12/2023