Balliol Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are extremely well cared for in a safe, secure and welcoming environment where staff know them well and respect their individuality.

Children are involved in a broad range of activities and experiences, both inside and outdoors. They benefit from easy access to a wide range of high-quality resources that are attractively presented in the learning areas. This helps to stimulate children's interest and promote the development of their skills.

Children throughout the nursery are happy, settled and confident. They enjoy the time they spend at nursery, making good relationships with staff. Children behave well and ...play happily alongside their friends.

Children's sensory development is supported very well. They confidently explore the different herbs and leaves in the sand tray and excitedly find further resources to add to the tray. Toddlers enjoy making marks in the sand, as staff model how to draw circles to promote their early mathematical knowledge.

Staff model language well as children explore the texture of the pretend dinosaurs. For example, staff extended children's vocabulary as they used words such as 'spiky', 'bumpy' and 'stomping'. Early literacy skills are well supported.

Children intently listen to stories and enthusiastically join in with songs and rhymes. They are beginning to have favourite songs and join in with actions and know some of the words.Children follow daily routines with confidence and show good levels of independence, even at a young age.

Young children feed themselves independently using cutlery. Older children learn key skills confidently, so they are extremely well prepared for the next stage in their learning, and for school.

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

The manager and staff consider partnerships with parents to be instrumental in supporting children's learning and to secure the ongoing development of the nursery.

The manager and staff team regularly seek parents' views and communicate back to parents any changes they have made as a result of their feedback. Staff exchange information with parents about children's care and education. This contributes to plans that staff make in the nursery to support children's learning and meet their care needs.

Staff encourage children from a young age to develop a real interest in books. Toddlers select board books independently, turn the pages and point at the pictures. Staff engage children well as they animatedly read familiar stories, such as, 'The Gruffalo'.

Younger children join in with familiar words and phrases and show high levels of engagement at story time.The manager has a clear vision for the nursery. She aims to provide a home-from-home environment.

Staff provide a nurturing environment for children in which they quickly settle, develop secure attachments to staff and show that they feel safe.Staff plan the curriculum so that it covers all areas of learning effectively. They assess children's abilities from information gathered from parents and their own observations.

Overall, they plan the curriculum to support individual children's needs. However, on occasions, staff do not make the most of this time to extend and challenge children's learning further, to help them learn as much as they can.Staff prepare children for life, helping them to learn about respecting others and developing their understanding of the similarities and differences of the friends and staff around them.

Children are given a range of rich experiences to understand how different people live and how they celebrate. They frequently visit Oxford, accessing an array of local facilities. For example, children are excited to be visiting the local dinosaur museum at half term.

Children benefit from daily exercise outdoors and follow good hygiene procedures. For example, children thoroughly enjoy the wide range of physical play opportunities and benefit from the improved outside area. Staff promote children's physical well-being and their understanding of healthy lifestyles very well.

For instance, children enjoy a range of high-quality meals and enjoy their regular yoga sessions.Staff speak highly of the support they receive from the manager and the management committee. They have regular meetings where they can discuss their ideas and plan professional development.

Staff clearly enjoy their work. They say they feel part of a team and value their colleagues' support and advice. The manager undertakes regular supervision and observation of staff.

Staff are encouraged to observe each other's interactions with children and improve their teaching practice. However, this is in its infancy and there is still scope for continuous professional development opportunities to focus more precisely on raising the quality of teaching to the highest level.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff can identify signs that a child may be at risk of harm. They are aware of a wide range of safeguarding issues and regularly access training to increase their knowledge. The manager understands her responsibility to report any concerns about children to the appropriate professionals and to keep robust records.

The manager follows strict recruitment procedures and completes rigorous checks to ensure that only those suitable to work with children do so. Staff support children and their families excellently in teaching them about when children may be at risk, including when using the internet and digital technology.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nextend staff interaction and engagement to facilitate more learning and challenge to the children, to help support them to learn as much as possible nenhance the professional development programme for staff to improve the quality of teaching to the highest level.