Denbigh Under Fives

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are very happy and secure in this welcoming and well-equipped nursery.

They arrive eager to play and explore the activities on offer. Children are met by smiling staff, with whom they develop exceptionally close bonds. Children move confidently around the indoor areas, selecting toys and friends to play with.

Staff also provide opportunities for children to play outdoors each day in all weathers. They encourage children to develop their physical skills, such as climbing and balancing. Staff teach children about growing things, such as potatoes, and encourage them to explore the natural world around them.
<...br/>Children learn to assess risk, such as when they find out which natural items are safe to play with in the mud kitchen. Overall, children benefit from a well-designed curriculum that supports them to develop the skills they need for the next steps in their learning. Children behave very well and interact positively with others.

Staff help them to develop a deeper understanding of rules and to understand the impact their actions have on others, such as being kind to others and sharing activities. Children are able to manage disputes amicably when playing. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from very good levels of support and additional resources.

Staff value children's stronger learning points and use these effectively when teaching. They work closely with other agencies to ensure that children make good progress from their starting points in development.

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

Staff know children and their families well.

They find out about children's interests and needs when they start nursery. This helps staff to build on what children already know and can do. For instance, children use textured and aromatic sand to learn about minibeasts through touch and feel.

Staff promote communication well with children who struggle to communicate verbally. They sit or lie down at children's level and make sure they have their attention before speaking. Staff respond to children's fascinations to model new learning, such as introducing how to paint lines with water across outdoor boards to develop children's focus and fine manipulative skills.

Staff provide many opportunities to children to develop a love of reading and to practise their early writing skills. Children use pencils and clipboards to record the bugs they find in the outdoor environment. Children practise and count patterns in play dough as staff converse in mathematical language such as 'larger' and 'medium'.

Children have free access to a wide range of books, both indoors and outside.Children enjoy listening to staff who demonstrate rhythms in songs and use actions and intonation to bring story characters to life. For example, children enjoy singing songs in English, Spanish, Japanese and Arabic.

This helps them to develop a good understanding of the meanings of words and actions.Staff draw all children into spontaneous and adult-led activities. They make use of children's comments to help them to develop a broad range of vocabulary, such as the scientific characteristics of different insects.

However, staff do not consistently explore topics in enough depth to stretch or support older children's knowledge and understanding. At times, staff do not extend pre-school children's understanding of why or how things work to develop their thinking skills.Managers place a strong focus on staff's well-being.

Staff say they feel well supported through regular team meetings. Managers encourage them to pursue further training to keep their knowledge up to date. For example, staff are training to be 'mathematics champions' so that they can enrich mathematical thinking in children's play and learning.

Staff promote good hygiene and healthy lifestyles with children. They routinely provide opportunities for children to practise brushing their teeth. Staff encourage children to become independent in self-care, ready for the move on to school.

All children learn to feed themselves with spoons and forks and to use the recycle bin to collect food scraps to give to foxes at a local site.Partnerships with parents are one of the key strengths of the nursery. Parents praise the friendly and nurturing staff and the level of care they provide.

They speak highly of the positive impact the nursery has had on their children's learning and behaviour. Parents feel well informed about their children's experiences, learning and progress. They greatly value staff, who help them to access appropriate agencies when they have difficulties.

Children learn about the wider world and the diverse community they live in. Staff encourage them to take part in a variety of family events with their parents. For example, they celebrate with annual summer picnics.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop interactions with older children to extend their knowledge of topics and consistently promote their understanding and thinking skills.