First Friends Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and enjoy their time at the nursery. They form strong bonds with friendly and caring staff who get to know children well.

The leadership team has high expectations of children and provides a learning environment that promotes children's curiosity and exploration in readiness for school. Children's behaviour is good.Children are motivated to learn and make good progress from their starting points.

Pre-school children thoroughly enjoy a forest school activity in the local environment to learn about worms. Staff teach children about the characteristics of worms and introduce new words, such as 'saddle' ...and 'wormcast' to support children's developing vocabulary. Children confidently use trowels to dig in the soil and persevere until they find worms.

Staff teach children to handle the worms gently and encourage children to describe how the worm feels, challenging them to work out which end is the worm's head. Children giggle as the worm wiggles and tickles the palm of their hand and say, 'the head is at the front so it can see where it's going'. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents drop off and collect children at the door.

Parents are welcomed into the nursery to help new children settle and this supports children's emotional well-being from the start. Staff share information with parents regularly about what their child has done during the day and about their care routines. Parents speak glowingly about the nursery and staff, and report that they feel involved in their children's learning and development.

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

The provider is committed to ensuring children receive high-quality care and education. They reflect on the provision to identify areas for improvement. They have recently made changes to reduce unnecessary paperwork burdens on staff and have plans to improve the outdoor learning environment for all ages.

Staff receive regular training and supervision meetings to help develop their skills and knowledge. However, although staff use children's interests and abilities to plan activities, occasionally some staff do not adapt their practice to increase children's enjoyment and learning further.Staff support children to respect each other and play well together.

For instance, they encourage babies to share large plastic coins and to take turns posting them into a money box. Children develop resilience and positive attitudes to learning. For example, older children persevere to complete jigsaw puzzles.

Staff support children effectively to become competent communicators. For example, as babies explore a cornflour and oat mixture, staff hide toy animals in the 'mud' and challenge babies to find them. Staff provide a narrative for babies' play to support their language skills, such as sticky, lumpy and stuck.

Babies practise the new words when they pull the toys out of the mixture saying, 'stuck'.Children benefit from regular songs and rhymes. Staff introduce action songs and props, such as hand puppets, to extend children's engagement.

Staff embed mathematics into activities, for instance, encouraging toddlers to show three fingers to represent three little monkeys jumping on the bed. However, some daily routines result in children being kept waiting too long, which wastes their play and learning time.Children develop a love of books from an early age.

Babies babble when they turn the pages and point to the pictures. Staff ask older children questions, such as what will happen next. However, at times, staff do not always give children time to think and voice their ideas before turning over the page and continuing with the story.

Children experiment with media and materials and show pride in their creative achievements. Toddlers create cow faces on a paper plate and staff support them to recall a story about farm animals. Older children mix red and white paint to make pink, and use cooked spaghetti to create worm patterns on paper.

Staff encourage children to remember their learning about worms. Children talk about the saddles on the worms, their bristles and mucus texture.Staff help children to learn about healthy lifestyles and to develop their self-care skills.

Children enjoy freshly prepared nutritious food. Babies learn to feed themselves, and older children use cutlery competently and enjoy taking responsibility to clear the tables. Staff work with parents to teach children about good oral health.

Children develop their physical skills. For instance, older children put on their outdoor clothing independently and demonstrate good control and spatial awareness as they run around a field to find objects hidden in the grass. Babies develop their coordination skills as they wrap dolls in blankets, put them in a toy buggy and push it around the room.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The provider uses robust recruitment and induction procedures to ensure staff are suitable for their role. The designated safeguarding lead and staff have a good understanding of child protection and wider safeguarding matters to help protect children from harm.

They know the procedures to follow should they have any concerns about a child or adult. Staff implement risk assessments to help keep children safe. For example, they sit with children during mealtimes, and check on sleeping children regularly.

Staff teach children how to keep themselves safe. For example, children know to clean their hands after forest school activities, to hold on to the walking rope during outings, and to look and listen for traffic before they cross a road.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nuse professional development opportunities more effectively to fully embed the curriculum ethos for less-confident staff, to improve children's learning even further give children time to think and respond to questions, to enable them to express their views and ideas review the organisation of daily routines to ensure children are not kept waiting too long and to make the most of their play and learning time.