Chapel House Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress from their starting points in learning.

Children show that they are happy, safe and content in the nursery. Babies seek out familiar adults for cuddles of reassurance when they become distressed They giggle and smile with excitement when playing games, such as 'Peekaboo', with staff. Babies move around the play area confidently exploring resources and practising their walking and crawling skills.

They display high levels of independence when holding paintbrushes to paint and explore different textures.Children are curio...us learners. For instance, two-year-olds embark on a bug hunt to investigate 'creepy' insects.

With the support of staff, they lift rocks and use magnifying glasses to search for ant eggs and snails. Older children are imaginative. They use different tools, such as bricks, drills and pliers, while pretending to make a castle.

Overall, children maintain a good level of engagement and concentration in group-time activities. Most children are considerate of each other and behave well for their ages. Children are active learners and enjoy taking age-appropriate risks in their play.

For instance, they competently climb and ride play equipment in the garden.

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

Senior leaders of the nursery have a clear vision for the setting. They develop a broad and an ambitious curriculum to ensure that all children make good progress in their learning and development.

They set high expectations for all children's learning, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Children of all ages benefit from meaningful learning across all areas of the curriculum.The curriculum intent for physical development is implemented well.

Children have good opportunities both indoors and outdoors to build on their large and small muscle skills. Staff encourage babies to move around and practise walking. Staff allow children who learn best outside to spend a significant amount of time outdoors to explore and investigate.

In addition, they build on children's understanding of healthy eating through engaging activities. For example, staff plan food tasting activities and encourage children to try vegetables, such as peppers and carrots, and discuss the benefits to the human body.Partnerships with parents are effective.

Staff use the online system and face-to-face communication well to keep parents informed about children's care and learning. In addition, staff seek and act on the views of parents to help identify areas to improve. Parents are kept to date with staff changes and other welfare matters through regular emails.

The majority of the staff understand the way children learn and use their knowledge and skills well to extend children's learning. They plan interesting activities to capture children's interests and ask effective questions to help children think and respond. However, on occasions, staff are not consistent in their teaching.

They take over children's play, introduce different topics at the same time and and therefore miss opportunities to extend children's learning effectively.Overall, leaders have responded well to the challenges posed by COVID-19 and continue to adapt to the way they work to ensure children's needs are met. However, they do not always ensure that staffing arrangements across the entire nursery are effective to meet the learning needs of individual children.

For example, staff are not always available in the morning to support children's learning when they arrive at the nursery.Staff are caring and place strong focus on developing children's personal, social and emotional development. They take their time getting to know children's individual care and learning needs, and offer regular praise to help boost their self-esteem.

Staff give clear rules and expectations for behaviour and encourage children to share and take turns. This contributes well to the way children behave and they begin to understand the difference between right and wrong.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders of the nursery and staff implement robust policies to help safeguard children's welfare. Staff have a suitable understanding of child protection, including the procedure to follow if they have any concerns about a child's welfare. In addition, they understand the procedure to follow if they are concerned about the behaviour of another staff member.

Staff attend regular training to improve their understanding of how to respond should children be exposed to extreme views and behaviours. They carry out rigorous risk assessments of the learning environment to remove any potential risks and help keep children safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove the supervision and training of staff to address minor inconsistencies in how they interact with children, and to help ensure that the curriculum intent is implemented consistently review and improve staffing arrangements across the nursery, particularly in the morning, to help ensure that children are fully supported in their learning.