Blossoms Nursery Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happy and excited to see their friends. They eagerly explore the activities on offer and quickly settle into the daily routines.

Staff offer children a wide range of experiences that build on their current interests. Consequently, children make good levels of progress. Pre-school children enjoy messy play that encourages them to talk about what their Christmas dinner might be like.

They pull leaves off sprouts and use kitchen implements to mash and combine with play dough and mushy peas. Children use their good communication skills to describe the smell of the sprouts and peas. They excitedly talk about... what they hope to receive from Father Christmas.

Toddlers immerse themselves in the Christmassy world of the hungry caterpillar, creating small snowmen from play dough. Real carrot noses bring the snowmen to life. Babies develop an early interest in books, snuggling up to staff to listen to their favourite stories.

Children behave well. They share, take turns and use simple sign language to say please and thank you. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive very good levels of care.

They take part in a wide range of learning opportunities carefully tailored to their individual needs, alongside their peers. This helps children to learn about and respect each other's similarities and differences.

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

The new manager and the staff team have worked hard to successfully meet the actions set at the last inspection.

Ongoing support, training and coaching, as well as regular opportunities for supervision, enable staff to develop and raise the quality of teaching. Staff access a wide range of training online and attend regular team meetings. This helps them to develop their practice and provide children with consistently, challenging activities and experiences.

Consequently, children are ready for the next stage of their learning.Staff share information with parents online and provide daily feedback at collection times. Consequently, parents are better informed about their children's achievements.

Parents are very complimentary about the staff and the progress their children make.Overall, staff encourage children to be independent and learn to manage tasks for themselves. Toddlers help staff to put toys away and wash their hands before eating.

Pre-school children enjoy making crowns to wear at the Christmas dinner. They stick pieces of coloured foil and other decorations to their crown. However, sometimes, staff overlook opportunities to encourage children's independence skills further.

For example, staff pre-cut the pieces of foil instead of encouraging children to use scissors to cut the foil for themselves.Babies enjoy playing outside in the fresh snow. Staff dress them warmly in cosy snowsuits and boots.

Once back inside, staff provide babies with a messy play activity using dry flour to mimic the snow. Babies use their hands and feet to explore the softness. Staff encourage babies to pick up handfuls of flour and then let it fall back into the tray to imitate snow.

They introduce relevant words, such as 'snow' and 'soft' to help develop babies' early communication skills.There are good arrangements to support children with SEND. Regular meetings between professionals, parents and staff help to provide consistency in children's care and development.

Staff access specialist mobility equipment and know what next steps to work on. This helps children to make progress in relation to their individual starting points.Overall, staff provide children with an ambitious curriculum that consistently ignites their curiosity and engagement.

Children eagerly explore messy play and enjoy creating pictures using paint. They enjoy listening to their favourite stories, helping to turn the pages and pointing out different features. However, staff have yet to fully develop the role-play areas to fully capture children's imaginative skills.

Staff take time to prepare children for the move on to the next stage in their learning. They share information as children move between rooms. Staff invite teachers to visit the nursery to discuss children's achievements and what they need to learn next.

This helps promote continuity in their development. The manager and staff make good use of additional funding to purchase resources and equipment to help support children's development, including those with SEND.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and staff have a good understanding of their role and responsibilities to safeguard children. They know the signs and symptoms that may indicate children are at risk of harm or abuse. The manager ensures staff complete regular child protection training and covers different aspects of safeguarding during team meetings.

This helps staff to remain vigilant to any changes in children's behaviour or family situation. Staff understand the dangers and risks to children from radicalisation or extremist behaviour.

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 the most of every opportunity to extend children's independence skills, particularly during adult-led activities review and develop further the range of opportunities for children to use and extend their imaginative skills through play.