ABC Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy their time at this pack-away setting. They receive a new and exciting environment each day.

For example, when children enjoy role play, staff ensure resources are available to complement their interests. This positively contributes towards children's good behaviours and eagerness to learn. Children guide their own learning, and they develop their ideas through play.

For example, they pretend they are firefighters as they use a real hosepipe to put out an imaginary fire. Children have time to practise and learn new skills. For example, the youngest of children show determination in their physical abilitie...s as they pull one grape at a time from the stork.

Key persons demonstrate patience, and they offer children guidance and support to be independent. For example, toddlers are given space and reassurance as they try hard to climb up the steps on a slide. This means children develop confidence in what they can achieve.

The key-person system helps children to feel understood, cared about and safe. Staff regularly discuss children's next steps to ensure all staff know children well. This promotes continuity in children's learning.

Children have a wealth of choice in their routine. For instance, they have an opportunity to engage in play indoors and outdoors. This positively supports those children who prefer to learn outside.

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

Leaders organise the routine and curriculum in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, children benefit from smaller group activities to improve their communication and social skills. This means children make progress from their starting points; they understand and say more each day.

Although leaders and staff clearly identify what needs to be learned by all children, including those who speak English as an additional language, they do not actively include important words in children's home languages when teaching. This does not help children to value their home language or enhance their communication skills.Overall, children develop secure communication and language skills.

Staff ask them questions to find out what they know, and they learn new words such as 'halves' and 'quarters' to extend their understanding and vocabulary. However, at times, staff use words such as, 'fishy' and 'piggy', instead of the correct words to reinforce children's vocabulary growth. This especially impacts those children who are learning English as an additional language.

Parents identify the responsibilities their children have at the setting and describe how their children further model these responsibilities at home. For example, from the moment children arrive, staff provide them with opportunities to practise important self-help skills, such as hanging up their own belongings, washing their hands and self-registering their attendance. This helps children to develop their independence.

Children learn about feelings and emotions. For example, they select an 'emotion card' to represent how they are feeling. This prompts conversations between staff and children to discuss their feelings.

Additionally, children listen to stories that promote discussions about positive behaviours, such as 'why pinching hurts'.Conversations with staff positively challenge children's problem-solving skills. For instance, staff encourage children to count how many children there are in the group.

Together, they discuss how many are boys and how many are girls. This helps children to develop a strong understanding of number, enabling them to recognise that there are more girls in the group than boys.Children transition to the next room when they are developmentally ready.

To help to prepare children, key persons visit new rooms with children and encourage them to mix with others during routine activities, such as eating breakfast. This helps to build their confidence during transition periods.Overall, parents feel well informed about their children's learning and the progress they have made.

However, they report some areas they feel the setting could improve on. These views had not yet been shared as leaders do not regularly seek parents' views. As a result, leaders cannot fully evaluate practice and determine what the setting needs to improve.

Leaders work alongside their team. This means they constantly observe the quality of teaching delivered, and supervision sessions are ongoing. Additionally, leaders share research and training opportunities with staff to enhance their continuous professional development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Leaders and staff have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. For example, they ensure children's information is kept confidential and not displayed.

They demonstrate suitable knowledge of the signs and symptoms that might indicate a child is at risk of abuse, and they know what action to take should concerns arise. All staff have attended relevant training to ensure they understand their roles in relation to the 'Prevent' duty guidance, female genital mutilation and online grooming. They are confident to whistle-blow.

Children are taught to keep themselves safe. For example, they learn what to do in the event of a fire, and they understand the importance of cutting up grapes to reduce the risk of choking.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop practice to provide more opportunities for children to use their home language in play and learning nimprove teaching techniques to ensure all children, including those who speak English as an additional language, continuously hear clear vocabulary to further develop their language skills review existing methods for gathering parents' and carers' views to further evaluate practice and determine what needs to improve.