Hopscotch Day Nurseries (Regents Park) Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff welcome parents at the door. They know the children well and place a strong focus on their happiness. As a result, children are confident, independent and explore freely.

Staff plan a broad and balanced curriculum. For example, they organise many activities to develop children's communication skills. Staff animatedly read well-known stories to the children.

They provide a variety of books, and older children look at them together, talking freely to each other. Babies snuggle in with staff to look at picture books. Toddlers play with the puzzles, and staff encourage language development as they name the animal pie...ces.

Staff plan small focus groups to help develop children's language skills, which children join in with excitedly as they are familiar with the repetition. Children are learning to become confident communicators and chat happily to their friends and adults. Staff promote children's physical development well.

They provide a variety of opportunities for children to strengthen their core muscles during outdoor play in the well-designed garden area. Children competently ride bicycles and scooters round the track. They crawl through tunnels and practise their rhythm and coordination with the hula hoops.

Staff have high expectations for behaviour and remind children to say 'please' and 'thank you'. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress from their starting points.

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

The interim management team is working hard with the staff team to embed changes across the nursery.

This includes revisiting the core values and continuing to enhance the provision. Staff report that their well-being is good and they receive supervision to support them in their work and address any areas for further development. This helps to ensure that they update their skills regularly.

Staff provide activities that engage children's interests and ignite their curiosity. For example, they invite children to predict if an orange will float or sink in the water tray. Staff encourage literacy skills as children make a mark on the 'float' or 'sink' column.

Children watch with anticipation to see what will happen. Staff develop children's knowledge further by removing the orange skin to see what happens. Children watch intently as the orange sinks.

Staff put the orange peel 'life jacket' back on and the orange magically floats again.Staff support children with SEND well. They attend training to ensure that their knowledge is current, and share new information with the team.

Regular monitoring and discussions help to ensure that children's individual next steps are appropriate. Staff work effectively with other agencies to ensure that children have their needs identified and met at the earliest opportunity and make progress in their development.The interim management team has recently enhanced partnerships with parents.

Regular communication in different formats helps parents to feel included. Parents value the effort that staff make to keep them updated with changes and practice in the nursery. Staff provide recipes and book bags to encourage children's learning at home.

They offer parents the opportunity to undertake paediatric first-aid training to help them to respond effectively to accidents at home.Staff generally know the children well and identify ways to support their learning. Children are allocated a key person during settling-in visits, and parents are aware of who these are.

However, the key-person system is not always fully effective as some staff are not aware of the importance of their role. For example, at times, children do not experience consistent support from key staff who know them well during care routines. This does not fully promote children's security and attachment.

Children enjoy healthy and nutritious snacks and meals, which meet their individual dietary requirements. However, although managers intend children to gain self-care skills, such as using cutlery, during these times, staff do not encourage these skills consistently in practice. This does not fully support children to build on their independence in preparation for the future.

Despite this, staff sit with the children and create a social experience.Even the youngest children show a high level of concentration and perseverance in their play. They build towers, knock them down and start all over again.

Older children navigate the controls on the toy sit-on diggers in the garden. They focus as they work the controls and gather up the soil to deposit on the ground. Children work collaboratively together, and staff encourage them by counting the 'drops' they make.

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: support staff to more consistently encourage children's self-care and independence skills review and improve the organisation of some daily routines, in particular mealtimes, to help raise children's self-help skills.