Happy Times Pre-School and Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children follow a curriculum that encourages them to become confident, sociable and talkative.

Staff have high ambitions for children. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who learn English as an additional language, make good progress in their learning. Children move around the nursery with a sense of purpose and show excitement and interest in their learning.

Children actively work together, sharing and taking turns as they do so. Exciting activities help children to learn about their bodies. They stretch dough over their heads as they stretch their bodies, ...then roll the dough into a ball as they roll their bodies into a ball.

This helps children to learn about their bodies and what they can do.Children develop a voracious appetite for discovering new books. Staff take children to the local library where they look at different texts, including non-fiction books.

This extends on their literacy skills, with some children beginning to read familiar words. Staff provide children with curious objects to study, such as peacock feathers. Staff sit with children as they draw the feathers and talk about the colours and patterns.

Children recognise that each coloured pencil has it own coloured tin. They enjoy counting, sorting and ordering these as they successfully name several different colours. Children behave well in the calm and orderly nursery.

They know what to expect and readily follow rules, such as washing their hands and sitting down while they are eating.

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

The manager has successfully reviewed all aspects of the nursery and taken decisive and radical steps to improve the quality of the provision. Although there are several new members of staff, the smooth induction arrangements have helped staff to quickly work together as an effective team.

The manager has clear intentions for what children will learn. There is a sharp focus on supporting children to recover their English language after the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The manager is aware that some children have not been using English at home and, although they can speak English, their desire and confidence in doing so needs to be reignited.

Staff support children's communication and language skills well. During group activities, staff use repetition and rhyming to boost children's vocabulary. Staff introduce children to new words, such as 'endangered'.

This takes children on a journey of discovering new things. They become curious and ask questions as they start to develop opinions and ideas of their own.Staff know when children's development exceeds expectations and provide them with good levels of challenge.

However, occasionally, staff are eager to race children on to the next stage of learning without giving them opportunities to fully consolidate and master what they have learned.Staff are supporting children to regulate their behaviour and emotions. They recognise that children are experiencing many new situations and encounters for the first time and that this can feel a little overwhelming.

Staff offer gentle and sensitive care that helps children to feel safe and secure. Children enjoy spending time in the sensory room, where the darkness and twinkling lights help them to calm down when they are over stimulated or anxious.On the whole, staff arrange activities well.

However, the role-play area does not sustain children's interest or help them to expand on their ideas. This because resources are mundane and do not capture children's imagination.Despite being new to the setting, staff know their key children well.

Children form close relationships with their key person. Staff find out about children's home lives. They know the languages children speak at home and about their individual families.

This helps staff to talk about the things that make children unique and special.The manager and provider understand the local community. They are aware of the negative impact of poverty and how this can disadvantage children and place them at risk of harm.

Through careful monitoring, close relationships with parents and awareness of wider social issues, the nursery staff are nurturing children and ensuring that their needs are met so they are ready and able to learn.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.All staff demonstrate a deep awareness of their role and responsibilities in safeguarding children.

The manager has introduced a safeguarding board in the staff office. Staff use this information for quick and easy reference to any safeguarding questions they might have. The manager works effectively with other professionals and the local safeguarding children partnerships.

Staff carry out regular risk assessments to review the premises and activities, ensuring that the nursery is safe for children to play and learn. The manager carries out checks to confirm the ongoing suitability of the staff who 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: provide multiple ways for children to practise and master their developing skills, such as when they begin to show an interest in forming early writing review and improve the areas where children play imaginatively so they are enticing and stimulating to encourage children to extend on their ideas through their play.