Dicky Birds Pre School Nurseries Ltd – Durham Road

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff provide a calm, welcoming and nurturing environment to help children to feel safe and emotionally secure.

They support children to transition between rooms. This helps children to settle quickly and build positive relationships with their key person. Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure.

They behave very well and thoroughly enjoy the company of staff and their peers. Children arrive happy and eager to start their busy day. Overall, staff implement a varied and broad curriculum to help to build on what children already know and can do.

They know their key children well. Staff plan a range o...f experiences and opportunities to help to promote children's focus on learning and to meet their individual needs. For example, younger children concentrate as they fill and empty large metal buckets with sand.

Staff encourage children to work out how much sand will balance a set of large scales. Children keenly take turns, negotiate and begin to solve problems.Leaders and staff recognise the importance of promoting children's good health and a healthy lifestyle.

Children benefit from nutritional and healthy meals, and they have plenty of fresh air when they play and learn outdoors. Staff base menus on children's individual dietary requirements and food preferences. This helps to keep children safe and consistently consider their individual needs.

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

Leaders have focused precisely on making improvements to help to ensure that the actions raised at the last inspection are met. They recognise the recent weaknesses identified and have swiftly dealt with these successfully. For example, staff confirm that they have received training to help them to improve the implementation of the curriculum intent.

However, leaders agree that there is still further work to be done to ensure the curriculum intent is embedded securely throughout the nursery.Staff welcome recent training, such as to help them to respectfully manage children's behaviour and to further promote children's communication and language skills. However, leaders recognise that some staff's interactions could be strengthened even further to help to promote children's communication and language skills to an even higher level.

Leaders have appropriate arrangements in place for the supervision of staff to help to provide them with support and training. Leaders regularly check the new knowledge which staff have learned, such as through quizzes and room observations.Partnership with parents is effective.

Parents comment very highly on the care which their children receive and the progress they make over time. Parents comment on the improvements in the nursery. For example, they welcome the improved online systems for communication.

Parents confirm that they appreciate regular updates, such as what their children learn every day. Staff successfully share information with parents about their children's progress for a consistent approach.Children benefit from regular trips to help to promote their sense of self within the local community.

For example, they enjoy regular visits to the local library and care homes. Older children have opportunities to experience forest school trips. Staff help to enhance children's opportunities and experiences well.

Staff create an exciting learning environment to help to support children's full participation and engagement. Children are engaged, keen and motivated learners. For example, very young children enthusiastically explore the textures of foam as they keenly find small-world animals.

Children practise their physical skills as they wiggle and jiggle to the songs they sing with staff. Older children act out home experiences as they chop pretend wooden food and play in role at the 'hairdressers'.Staff skilfully teach children early mathematics to help them to develop an understanding of early mathematical concepts.

During a planned activity, staff confidently use mathematical language such as 'smallest', 'biggest' and 'half full' as they encourage children to count cups of flour and salt when they make dough. Children have a positive attitude to their learning. They begin to confidently use mathematics in a range of situations.

Key staff liaise with the nursery's and the region's special educational needs coordinators effectively. This helps them to quickly identify those children who may have gaps in their learning. This also helps staff to provide a more specialised and targeted approach for some children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Leaders and staff have a good understanding of how to promote children's welfare and safety. They are clear about their responsibility to keep children safe and from harm.

Leaders make sure that staff receive training in safeguarding children. Staff know the procedures to follow if they are concerned that a child may be at risk of harm. They are confident in following the procedures for an allegation against staff and the whistle-blowing policy.

Staff supervise children during mealtimes and when the youngest children sleep, to help to minimise potential hazards and risk to children. Many staff hold current paediatric first-aid certificates to help them to attend to an emergency quickly.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: continue to embed the curriculum intent so that staff focus more precisely on children's individual learning needs, particularly in the Ducklings room strengthen staff's interactions in order for children to hear and use the correct pronunciation and more complex words, to help them to make the best possible progress in their communication and language skills.

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