Discovery Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children develop warm and friendly relationships with staff.

They fully welcome staff into their chosen play experiences and remain engaged in their learning for good periods of time. For example, young children giggle as they play hide and seek with a member of staff. Older children enjoy playing with the dolls' house and learn about mathematical terms as they place the dolls 'in' bed and 'under' the duvet.

Children have opportunities to explore their theories and develop their knowledge of food and growth. For instance, they discussed what the inside of a pumpkin may look like. They then received effective support fr...om staff to cut into the pumpkin to confirm their thoughts.

All children receive effective development opportunities throughout their day. Staff have a secure knowledge of each child's learning needs and they plan a fully comprehensive and successful curriculum. Children learn to manage their feelings and behaviour through clear guidance and support from staff.

From a young age, staff help children to use tools, such as sand timers, to help them to share toys and resources. Through effective teaching of the sequence of learning for this skill, children adopt this strategy to help them manage their behaviour.

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

The manager has a clear vision for the provision and creates a highly inclusive and family orientated ethos.

She and her staff work tirelessly to support children and their families. For example, the manager ensures that all children can attend, adapting the environment and staffing to meet children's individual needs.The nursery environment, like the curriculum, is well planned and rich in re-purposed equipment and resources.

This helps children to understand the importance of using items for more than one purpose and about recycling. At lunchtimes, children learn about differing waste products. For example, they separate food waste and packaging that can be recycled.

Parents positively praise staff for their valuable support. They fully appreciate how staff work with other agencies and professionals to seek the assistance their children need. For example, parents comment about the timely referrals for speech and language therapy, enabling them to support their children at home.

Staff have a secure knowledge of what children know, understand and can do. Overall, staff's interactions with children are of a good quality. However, at certain times of the day, such as mealtimes, staff do not always extend children's communication and language skills.

Sometimes, staff do not further extend the conversations they have with children, such as exploring good dental hygiene when talking about sugary foods.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive prompt and timely support. This enables early diagnosis and support plans to be implemented without delay and for gaps in learning to close swiftly.

Staff use additional funding that children receive successfully, and specifically to enhance the outcomes for individuals.Staff are aware of children's family backgrounds and cultures. However, they do not consistently explore and plan ways in which they can successfully embrace all children's heritage and cultural backgrounds.

During the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, staff have been fully supportive of children and their families. For example, they made regular visits to their homes to drop off parcels with provisions and learning packs. The manager ensures that the setting is fully involved in the community, for example liaising with local shops who donate food.

She also supports schemes such as hiding story books in the area for children to find and share.Children show great resilience and determination to persevere. For example, a child was struggling to move a box of wooden dominoes.

She tried and tried again, stopping to think through her next course of action. She then achieved her desired goal to take the box to a member of staff to play the game.Children learn to take risks under the effective supervision of staff.

For example, children accepted the challenge of walking over differing sized boulders in the outdoor area. Staff successfully encouraged them in this task, offering a hand to hold when needed. This enhances children's large muscles and enables them to develop skills such as balancing and climbing.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff carry out daily risk assessments to highlight and minimise all potential hazards. The manager follows safer recruitment procedures to ensure that staff caring for children are suitable.

Staff have regular meetings with the manager where they agree training and development opportunities. The manager is fully supportive of staff's well-being and operates an open-door policy. Staff report that they happily approach the manager with their concerns and understand that they would be listed to.

Staff show a good knowledge of safeguarding, including the wider aspects. They understand how to make prompt referrals if they have a child protection concern.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build on the interactions staff have with children to extend their communication and language skills, especially during routine times of the day nincrease staff's understanding of how to embrace children's cultural backgrounds and how to plan more effectively for this.