Canons Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and enjoy their time at this welcoming and nurturing nursery. They build warm and positive relationships with staff and each other. Children are keen to take part in a range of interesting and challenging activities, which are carefully planned to meet their individual learning needs.

Staff are well qualified and experienced. They closely observe children and monitor their progress effectively. Promoting children's communication skills is at the core of the nursery's curriculum.

This helps all children, including those in receipt of additional funding, to make substantial progress in their language d...evelopment. Children quickly become confident speakers with friends and staff. However, teaching at group times is not matched as well as it could be to children's different needs.

Children benefit highly from staff's very effective partnerships with parents. Close partnership working helps children to build secure attachments with their key person so that they settle quickly into the nursery routines. Parents feel welcomed and involved in their children's learning.

They speak highly about the kind and supportive staff team. Staff have high expectations for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff provide very good support for children to help them manage their own feelings and behaviour.

Children are kind and friendly to others and know how to play safely together.

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

Staff consider what individual children can do and what they should learn next. Staff think about the best ways to set out the resources and activities to promote children's interest and learning.

The effectiveness of this was evident in the way children showed fascination as they touched rice and played with soap bubbles in the play trays. They learned mathematical skills as they made paint patterns using cubes.Children develop a love of books through the story topics in the nursery.

They like to sit down with their friends and staff to read books, indoors and outside. Staff's high interest in reading leads to deep discussions with the children. However, sometimes, staff do not adapt teaching in group activities to ensure that all children are fully engaged and learning appropriate concepts and skills.

The teaching of fine manipulative skills is continuous through the day. Children enjoy making small models inside and tracing large patterns outdoors.Children enjoy playing outside and developing their physical skills.

For example, they enthusiastically play different games using soft-play apparatus. However, there are some missed opportunities for children to find solutions to their difficulties.Staff are very effective in promoting equality, which includes celebrating differences.

This helps children to respect their differences and help each other.There are very good links with other professionals who regularly visit to provide specialist support. For example, staff keenly use the additional resources provided by speech and language therapists.

Staff have received specialised training and demonstrate excellent practice in promoting children's listening and attention skills.Children who speak English as an additional language receive excellent support to settle in. They respond happily to staff's smiles and show that they feel confident to try out new experiences.

Children are involved in the decisions about what healthy food to have. They enjoy choosing from different spreads for crackers at snack time. Staff successfully support children's developing self-care skills and encourage good hygiene routines.

For instance, older children use the bathroom independently. This helps to support their physical health and well-being.Leaders maintain a strong focus on ensuring that staff expertise can support further improvements.

For instance, they supervise staff performance regularly and are developing an effective programme of training to develop subject knowledge in phonics. Staff recently completed sign-language training and are using this to develop children's communication and language. Staff feel valued and work well as a team, sharing children's information for planning every week.

Staff consider how to build on children's prior knowledge in each area of learning. For example, children learn challenging vocabulary through topics such as those on the seasons, community festivals and natural things.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff are well trained and knowledgeable about their duties to safeguard the children in their care. They report and promptly record concerns about a child's circumstances or behaviour that may indicate their welfare is at risk. Leaders follow up on any concerns rigorously.

Records show that any concerns are well managed, with leaders working constructively in partnerships with outside agencies to provide timely support when children and families need it. The manager follows safer recruitment procedures to ensure the suitability of staff and takes steps to assess their ongoing suitability.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: continue to enhance the quality of teaching at group times so that staff adapt teaching even more effectively, to fully promote younger and older children's rapid progress support children further in managing and solving simple problems for themselves.