Happy Jays

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy, settled and feel safe at nursery. They build close friendships with others and form strong attachments with their key person. Staff are calm and patient and this significantly contributes towards children's good behaviour and positive attitudes towards their learning.

The manager and staff team are very clear about their approach to the curriculum. They plan a variety of fun activities that start with children's interests. For example, children delight in making 'snow' from cornflour, water and shaving foam, after being outside to experience what real snow feels like.

Children's creativity is valued... and celebrated by staff. For example, children have fun expressing themselves in the art room. They create a 'galaxy' using brushes and different tools to flick paint and make patterns.

Children are given time to explore and be imaginative. They enjoy playing with superhero characters and vehicles to create their own scenarios. Staff engage with an enthusiastic approach.

For example, they build a den from wooden logs and hide animals inside, pretending they are trapped. Staff are passionate about supporting children to be confident, independent and resilient individuals. This helps children to successfully develop key skills in preparation for their future learning.

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

Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities very effectively. They ensure that children receive the help they need swiftly and work in close partnership with parents and other professionals.Children enjoy being outdoors and spend time running, climbing and exploring sand, mud, sticks and stones.

They take part in a variety of physical activities, such as yoga and gymnastics. This helps to develop children's balance, flexibility and coordination effectively.Staff encourage and support children to be independent.

For instance, at mealtimes, children serve their own food using large spoons and pour drinks by themselves. They learn how to blow their own noses using a tissue and wash their hands thoroughly with soap. This also helps children to learn about the importance of good hygiene.

Staff skilfully teach children about number, shape and measure through their play. For example, pre-school children enjoy matching plastic bears of different sizes to a variety of patterns on a board. Younger children pretend to cook in the home corner using dough and look at the shapes inside the baking tins.

Children enjoy listening to stories and looking at books. Pre-school children practise making different letters and sounds of the alphabet using actions. Babies delight at making marks on paper with crayons and are proud to show their creations to staff.

This helps to develop children's interest in reading and writing. However, at times, staff do not consistently make the most of opportunities to develop and extend children's language and communication skills further.Children are motivated to be involved in activities.

For example, babies enjoy investigating sand using different tools, such as a spade and sieve. They smile and make sounds while they explore the texture of the sand on their fingers and hands.Children make good progress and are achieving in line with expectations for their age.

Staff regularly observe and track children's development across the different areas of learning. They identify what they need to learn next. However, staff do not always use this information well enough to provide the highest levels of challenge for children in their play.

Parents are complimentary about the quality of care and learning provided by staff and manager, and comment that the staff are kind and caring. They say hey are well informed about their child's development. Parents feel that their children are both emotionally and academically ready for school, when the time comes for them to leave nursery.

Managers monitor staff practice well. For example, they complete regular supervision and appraisal meetings to discuss their ongoing performance. Staff are set focused targets to help improve their knowledge and skills.

For example, they complete online training to learn about behaviour management strategies. Staff also observe each other teaching and give feedback to help them learn from each other.Managers support staff effectively.

For example, they work alongside other staff members to support their knowledge and understanding of new planning systems. Managers have completed training in areas such as mental health, to enable them to listen, help and support staff welfare effectively. Staff are happy to talk about the support that is in place and how it has benefited them greatly.

The manager gathers the views of parents, staff and children when reflecting on the effectiveness of the setting. She values feedback from local authority visits and other external support. She uses this to help drive continual improvement and make positive changes.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff demonstrate a good knowledge of child protection. They can identify possible signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect.

Staff show awareness of wider safeguarding matters, such as female genital mutilation. They understand the setting's policy and procedures and who to contact if they have any concerns about a child's welfare. They complete daily risk assessments indoors and outdoors, to help identify and minimise any risks to children.

During busy times, such as arrival and collection times, staff monitor the secure entrance to ensure that only authorised people enter the premises. The manager has robust recruitment and induction procedures in place to ensure staff are suitable to work with children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: maximise opportunities to promote children's language and communication skills even further nuse information from assessment more sharply to plan highly challenging activities that help children make the best possible progress.