Handkerchief Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is inadequate

Risk assessments are not always effective. Some staff fail to identify emerging risks or take prompt action to maintain children's safety.

In addition, some staff organise activities in environments that are not suitable, and which put children at risk from cross infection.The quality of education is variable and children do not always receive high-quality interactions from staff, which limits the opportunity to build on their prior learning. In some group rooms, staff prioritise completing necessary chores at the expense of direct interactions with children.

Pre-school children become boisterous and display unwa...nted behaviour. The environment becomes chaotic as children run around the room, inadvertently pushing and bumping into their friends. This creates hazards for other children.

While some staff attempt to encourage positive behaviour, children ignore requests to stop and continue their risky play.Nonetheless, children get plenty of opportunities to develop their growing physical skills. Staff provide activities at different levels to encourage babies to pull themselves up and to help them stand independently as they play.

Babies use their core muscles as they crawl up and down small ramps, and staff provide plenty of praise, clapping and motivating babies further. Staff create an outdoor environment to support children's interest in the world around them. Pre-school children bend and stretch as they work with staff to collect natural resources, such as twigs and leaves.

Others carry large branches to make dens to hide in. Staff pose questions, helping children consider which items will work best. This helps children to problem solve.

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

Staff do not recognise risks or take prompt enough action to maintain a safe environment at all times. For example, children are allowed to lie on their backs on the floor to eat their lunch with minimal supervision from staff. This is despite staff recognising that this presents a significant risk from choking.

Children's good health is not always promoted. Staff take groups of toddlers to sit on the bathroom floor to have song time. Toddlers sit with their hands on the floor and then put their hands to their face and mouth.

When some toddlers lose interest and disengage from the activity, they play inappropriately with the sinks and in the toilet stalls. This increases the risk of cross infection.The provider has an overview of the curriculum and knows what they want children to achieve.

Staff know the children and have determined appropriate next steps to help children progress. That said, interactions between staff and children sometimes lack purpose, direction and challenge. As a result, the quality of teaching is variable, and children's experiences are not consistent throughout the setting.

Children are learning to develop positive behaviours. For example, pre-school children listen well to instructions and contribute positively during a forest school session. Toddlers are helped to put their coats and boots away after returning from outdoor play.

In contrast, staff struggle to manage children who demonstrate unwanted behaviour when they are doing this by themselves. This goes on for too long before other staff intervene. Staff do not consistently help children understand what is expected of their behaviour.

Leaders recognise that multiple changes in the management team have resulted in variable staff practice across the nursery. While regular meetings and dedicated time for training occurs, some staff have yet to receive an individual supervision. This means leaders have not yet focused on identifying individual areas for development.

To this end, some staff are not fully effective in supporting children's learning outcomes.Staff plan activities to help children practise the skills needed for early writing. For example, pre-school children use their hands and fingers to squash and squeeze clay to make their own Christmas decoration.

Babies babble confidently, feeling ribbons and exploring texture books with staff. In addition, they focus and use their fingers to carefully remove wooden pegs and blocks, one by one, from a box. Staff help toddlers to make structures out of click-together shapes.

When children struggle, staff provide words of encouragement and suggest alternative ideas, which see children persevere.Children are developing their early independence skills. For example, babies are learning to feed themselves.

Staff are vigilant and build on babies' skills, demonstrating how to use the cutlery correctly. Toddlers and pre-school children are supported to put on their own coats and suits and boots. This helps children do as much for themselves as possible.

Staff provide healthy meals, snacks and fresh drinking water for children. Staff work closely with parents to manage children's allergies and dietary requirements. There is an established process in place to ensure this information is safely communicated across the nursery.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.There is not an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must: Due date ensure all staff have a secure understanding of how to identify and minimise all risks to children, including in relation to potential choking hazards 06/01/2025 ensure children's health and hygiene are promoted at all times and take all necessary steps to prevent cross infection 06/01/2025 implement behaviour management strategies, which support staff to be consistent in their approach, and which build on children's understanding of behaviour expectations 06/01/2025 ensure that all children benefit from high-quality interactions with staff and receive meaningful and purposeful learning experiences that build on what they already know and can do 06/01/2025 improve staff supervision, coaching and training to precisely identify individual areas of development and ensure staff have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

06/01/2025

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