Happy Choo Choo Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children happily enter this warm, safe and welcoming nursery.

They are greeted enthusiastically by staff who tell them all about the activities on offer. Children hang up their coats, put away their water bottles and straight away find something to play with. Leaders design an ambitious curriculum for all children.

Children are engaged and focused on their chosen tasks and activities.Staff support children to behave well. Children form strong friendships with other children, and they seek them out to play.

Older children are caring and help those younger than them. For example, helping younger children to wipe... their noses or getting an extra toy when they can see two children both wanting the same resource.Leaders and staff have high expectations of children.

Children are encouraged to be independent, helping to get themselves ready for the garden by putting on their wellies and coats. At lunchtime, children feed themselves and pack away their lunchboxes, putting them back on the trolley for home time.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language are well supported.

Leaders and staff work in partnership with parents and other agencies to provide consistency in children's care, learning and development.

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

Staff at the nursery know the children well. The development of children is accurately tracked, and children have appropriate next steps in place to ensure they continue to build on what they already know and can do.

Children are well prepared for the next stage of their learning.Children are avid problem solvers. They work together to fit puzzle pieces together, build with magnetic tiles and add or take away counters to ensure the weighing scales balance.

Children show perseverance and resilience as they continue to negotiate difficult tasks through trial and error. Staff encourage children with words of praise. Children show pride in accomplishing what they have set out to do building confidence and high self-esteem.

The curriculum for communication and language is a strength of the nursery. Staff speak to children who speak English as an additional language in their home languages, where possible, to help them feel settled and secure. They introduce English using simple, clear words and instruction alongside visual aids.

Children pick up words quickly and use this to converse with their peers. Initiatives, such as a weekly core book, 'bucket time' and 'box clever' allow staff to provide early intervention and support the communication and language skills of all children.At the present time, staff do not organise snack time well enough to help children develop a strong understanding of this routine activity.

For example, children serve snacks and drinks from one table and then sit at another table. Many children eat standing at the table they are serving at and get confused by the process they are supposed to be following.Leaders and staff promote healthy lifestyles to children.

Children have been learning what is good for their bodies and what is not. As they sit down to lunch children hold up their water bottles saying, 'I have healthy water'. Children become familiar with different vegetables as they use leeks, carrots and broccoli for stamp printing in paint.

On a sensory tray, children have a variety of vegetables and water to make their own home-made soup. They discuss together what they like to eat at home.Partnership with parents is good.

Parents feel well supported by the nursery in terms of understanding what their children are learning and how this can be supported at home. Parents describe staff at the nursery as kind, loving and always putting the interests of the children at the forefront of the nursery.Staff at the nursery feel well supported by leaders.

There are regular opportunities for further training to continue their professional development. Leaders are reflective in their practice, seeking regular feedback from parents, carers and other professionals regularly. Leaders have clear and ambitious plans to further improve the outside space to enhance the experiences for children.

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: norganise routines, such as snack time, more effectively so children understand what is expected from them.