Chestnuts Day Nursery, Longlevens

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settle quickly into the nursery. They demonstrate they feel safe and secure in their surroundings. Babies and young children enjoy their time at the nursery and develop a strong bond with their key person.

Staff have high expectations for children and use praise and encouragement to help build children's self-esteem and confidence. Older children are able to move freely around the rooms and choose what they would like to play with next. Resources are easily accessible and well laid out to enable children to make their own choices and become independent learners.

Staff are good role models. They p...romote children's good behaviour and kindness to others. Children are well behaved and polite.

The older children use their manners with little or no prompting from staff. Staff who work with the younger children gently remind them to share and take turns as they play. Children make good progress in all areas of their learning and development.

Staff provide a good range of interesting activities that motivate and interest children to learn. Young children enjoy exploring different textures, for example when they play with pasta and rice. They enjoy scooping the pasta into cups and bowls, counting the pieces with staff and attempting to use tweezers to pick up pieces of pasta.

Older children enjoy using natural materials they have collected, such as leaves, twigs, stones and grass, as they stick them on paper and make faces.

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

The manager and staff evaluate their practice regularly and effectively. They have frequent staff meetings to discuss how changes may be made to routines for the benefit of the children, such as changing the use of rooms to enable children to have better access to resources.

Staff take part in regular in-house training which helps to support them further in their professional development.Children benefit from regular access to the outside play spaces. They thoroughly enjoy climbing, playing in the mud kitchen and experiencing different kinds of weather, such as rain.

This supports children's physical development and knowledge of the world around them.Staff support children well in their emotional development. They have a calm, caring and gentle approach towards the children.

Staff are sensitive to children's needs and recognise quickly when they need reassurance, such as a cuddle.Children's independence skills are supported well overall. Staff encourage children to put their coats on as they get ready to go outside and to choose what they would like to play with next.

However, staff do not consistently make the most of opportunities during everyday activities to help support children's independence skills further, for example enabling them to become more involved in the preparation of mealtimes.Staff know the children well. They have a good knowledge of the curriculum.

Staff use precise observations, assessments and planning to ensure that all children's individual needs are met well. Clear monitoring by the manager and staff help to ensure that any gaps in learning can be quickly identified and acted upon.Staff promote children's communication and language skills well.

They have a particular focus on this area at present after the recent completion of monitoring of all children in the nursery. Staff have completed training on how to support children's language skills better. They comment that this has made them more aware of how they can help children to improve their language.

Staff are skilled at making sure they give children time to answer questions to help build their confidence to speak.Partnerships with parents, carers and other early years settings the children attend are good. Staff work closely with parents to ensure that children's individual care needs are met effectively.

However, staff do not gain sufficiently detailed information from parents about what their children already know and can do before they start at the setting, to help them in their initial planning of activities. Staff provide parents with regular feedback about their children's progress, which helps parents to further support their children's learning at home. Parents comment on the 'calm', 'caring' and 'friendly staff' and the good progress their children make.

They feel fully included and supported by the staff in their children's care.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a secure knowledge of safeguarding matters.

They are confident in their understanding of the signs and indicators of abuse, and know exactly who to contact should they have any concerns about a child's welfare. Staff actively promote children's regular attendance and monitor when children are not present to help keep them safe. Staff are familiar with the whistle-blowing policy and local safeguarding procedures for reporting allegations.

They are actively encouraged to update their training, which helps them to maintain a good understanding of child protection procedures and the wider areas of safeguarding. The owners and manager implement rigorous recruitment, induction, supervision and monitoring procedures for staff.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nextend the range of information gathered from parents to help them share their knowledge of what their children already know and can do before they start, to help staff plan activities and build on children's learning even further make the most of every opportunity to support children's independence skills further.