Ashbourne Day Nursery at Padgate

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Leaders have an accurate view of the strengths and next steps for the setting. They are committed to raising the quality of practice and education to a consistently good level. A programme of professional development has been put into place to support staff in their roles.

However, these plans are in their infancy, and there are inconsistencies in staff practice and the implementation of the curriculum. Leaders have designed an aspirational, well-sequenced curriculum. However, they have not communicated to staff what they intend for children to learn during their time at the nursery.

Staff know each child well and childre...n benefit from experiences that reflect their interests across all areas of learning. However, when planning activities, staff do not consider children's current development in order to build on this effectively. Children prefer to spend their time engaged in free play and they quickly lose focus in planned activities.

The progress that all children make is variable.Staff welcome children with encouragement and enthusiasm as they arrive. They support children to feel safe and secure.

Children eagerly go with staff to have their nappy changed and enjoy singing together. Children have formed good relationships with staff and each other. Babies giggle as staff tickle their faces with feathers.

They roll balls to each other and clap with excitement. Staff help children learn positive behaviours. Children relish in completing jobs to help staff, such as shaking the tambourine to indicate it is tidy-up time.

They use the sign for 'thank you' as staff pass them their drink. Older children demonstrate kind behaviours. They invite each other into their play and kindly pass food to their friends at mealtimes when they cannot reach the serving bowl.

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

Staff know their key children's interests and what they need to learn next. However, they do not use their knowledge of children's individual abilities to help them plan activities that are pitched at the correct level. As a result, while children eagerly join these activities, they quickly lose interest and wander away.

Children do not consistently benefit from the planned activities on offer.Overall, staff support children's communication and literacy skills well. Lots of singing can be heard and children request their favourite songs and rhymes as they sing along with staff.

Staff model new words as they interact with children and children repeat these in their play. However, staff are unclear about how to support some early literacy skills effectively. For example, staff do not accurately pronounce the sounds that letters represent when modelling this to children.

This does not support children in preparation for later learning.Staff promote children's growing independence. They encourage children to look in the mirror to help them wipe their own noses and then to wash their own hands.

Staff support children to begin to serve their own meals. Young children access their own drinking water. However, at these times the setting's high expectations for hygiene are not consistently met.

For example, when children freely access drinking water, they sometimes use other children's cups. While staff notice this and take action, they do not reflect effectively on how to organise drinking arrangements in a way that prevents and helps children to learn about cross-infection.Parents are positive about the care that their children receive at the setting.

They have seen progress in their children's development since they started to attend. Parents value the communication they receive about their children's care needs. However, staff do not always provide parents with information about their children's development.

Furthermore, they do not discuss with parents how they are using additional funding to support children's learning. This limits continuity between setting and home.Staff provide resources that support children to extend their own ideas.

They use some of children's play to promote some learning. For example, children show great imagination as they collect pine cones and flowers outside. As they show what they have collected, staff encourage them to consider how many they might have.

Children predict 80 as 'that is a big number'. Staff introduce new words, such as clover and daisy, as children mix all of their findings together and present staff with 'pine cone pie'. Children show high levels of curiosity during the times that they explore their own interests.

Staff help children to understand their feelings. They read books to children about emotions and explore how the different characters might feel. When children become overwhelmed, staff offer a calm response and cuddles.

Children are beginning to understand the language of feelings, which helps their emotional development.The setting provides children with a range of experiences to support their physical skills. However, lots of these experiences are incidental and do not link to what staff have identified as children's next steps in their physical development to promote consistently good and continuous progress.

That said, children's basic physical skills are suitably promoted. Staff encourage babies to pull themselves to standing and to stack objects, laughing together as the objects fall. Children use their strength to push along wheelbarrows.

They show high levels of confidence in their physical abilities. As children race with staff they shout, 'I am really fast'.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date ensure that staff's professional development precisely targets inconsistencies in practice to help raise the quality to a consistently good level 26/07/2024 implement a curriculum that is ambitious, well sequenced and has a clear intent for what children will learn.26/07/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove communication with parents so that they are clear about children's next steps in learning and how they can extend this at home.

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