Acorns Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy their time in the nursery. They show that they are confident, happy, and feel valued.

Staff treat all children as individuals and ensure that they all have access to the same play opportunities. Babies thrive on staff's celebrations of what they can achieve. They thoroughly enjoy singing sessions and join in with songs.

Babies and staff give a hearty clap at the end of the songs to praise their achievements.Children have access to a range of interesting resources and activities, which staff plan based on their individual needs and interests. Babies and toddlers demonstrate a strong exploratory impulse as... they engage in sensory play.

Babies use their hands to explore cereal and blue foam as they look for different animals. Toddlers immerse themselves in discovering pretend sea animals in coloured rice and wet sand. Pre-school children concentrate as they use their fine motor skills with rollers and pretend fossils to manipulate and make prints in dough.

Children behave well and form good friendships with each other. They seek each others out to play and share experiences with. For example, two children pretend to be a hairdresser and client in the role-play area.

Toddlers respond well to staff's positive reinforcement of expectations, such as 'kind hands please'.

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

The manager is reflective of staff practice. She observes staff as they teach and interact with the children.

One-to-one meetings help staff to reflect on what they do well and what they could improve on. Staff attend training to help support children's learning. For example, some staff have attended sign language training.

This is used alongside spoken words to promote children's understanding of words.Additional funding is used in a variety of thoughtful ways. Each week, pre-school children have a physical exercise session with an external football coach.

Some children receive finding for a hot lunch, this contributes to children having a healthy relationship with food. The nursery uses funding to pay for a taxi for children to attend sessions. This supports all children to have opportunities to develop and make good progress over time.

Staff provide children with a range of books to look at to promote their early reading skills. Babies sit alongside staff, turn the pages of a book and lift flaps on the pages to see what is underneath. Toddlers listen to a popular story read by staff.

Pre-school children relax after lunch and look at books independently.Overall, staff prepare children well for school and their future learning. For instance, children show good listening and attention skills and follow requests and routines.

They instantly help to tidy up when asked. However, there are times when staff do not fully consider how to extend children's independence.They routinely complete some simple tasks that are within children's capabilities, for example, at lunchtime.

There is a clear curriculum with speech and language having been identified as a focus. Overall, staff provide opportunities to help promote children's communication and language skills. For example, songs and rhymes form a strong part of children's day.

However, sometimes, staff do not make the most of opportunities to promote children's early communication and language skills even further. For instance, there are occasions when staff ask questions in quick succession and do not always allow children the time to think and formulate a response.Staff meet with parents and children before their start date.

This provides the opportunity for staff to gather information about children's development to find out what children can and cannot do, their interests, and individual care needs. This helps staff to make sure that there are activities to interest children from day one. As a result, children are quick to settle and enjoy learning as they play.

Parents are very positive about the care and education that their children receive. Some of the children have followed their older siblings into the nursery. Parents say that their children's social skills have improved.

They are proud that their young children can count to 20. Parents appreciate the online system for sharing information. This shows a united approach between home and nursery.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff team have a strong understanding of how to keep children safe from harm. They understand the signs and risk factors of abuse and know how to report their concerns.

Staff know the procedure to follow if they have concerns about another adult in the setting. The provider follows safer recruitment procedures to make sure that staff are suitable to work with children. The premises are safe and secure.

Staff supervise children well and have a clear understanding of how to support their individual dietary needs, such as allergies. Daily checks of the environment are completed to ensure children's safety.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to make better use of opportunities that arise to promote children's independence develop staff's understanding of how to consistently support children's early communication and language skills.