Little Larks Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Leaders and staff provide a welcoming and nurturing environment where all children flourish. Children have a positive attitude to learning. They are eager to explore, investigate and find things out.

Children show high levels of emotional well-being, are self-assured and develop good social skills. They show they feel safe. Children respond positively to adults and listen to instruction well.

They show high levels of control and cooperate well with each other.The curriculum incorporates a forest school outdoor educational experience, where children explore woodland on a regular basis. Staff plan interesting experiences... to move children forward in their learning, and use existing experiences to help them acquire new knowledge.

For example, children use lard and bird seed to make pine cone bird feeders for their 'regular robin' and other types of birds that visit the garden. This helps them to learn about the natural environment.Children behave well.

They learn to take turns, play cooperatively and manage their emotions. Staff work well as a committed and enthusiastic team. They have high expectations for every child.

Staff work extremely effectively with parents and other professionals to ensure that any child who needs additional help quickly receives the support they need to enable them to progress.

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

Since the last inspection, leaders and staff have implemented a new approach to planning children's experiences, to ensure that the individual needs of all children are met well to narrow any gaps in learning. Leaders and staff identify strengths and areas needing development, and have plans in place to address them to further improve children's learning.

Children form secure attachments to staff. A well-established key-person system helps to promote children's emotional well-being. When children first start attending, staff meet with parents to find out about their child's unique characteristics, such as what they enjoy.

This enables staff to plan and provide activities and learning experiences based on children's interests. For instance, older children pretend to make tea with role-play food sets, and babies explore making marks with paint using their hands to print on paper.Staff provide children with activities throughout the nursery to teach them early literacy skills.

For example, children enjoy singing songs and joining in with stories. Staff model language well and introduce new vocabulary to children appropriately, checking their understanding before moving on. For example, they encourage children to recognise letters of the alphabet and the sounds they represent.

Staff have a sound knowledge of how children learn. They make regular assessments of what children know and can do. Staff use this information to plan interesting experiences for children.

On occasions, staff do not consistently provide children with challenge in their learning to further enhance their thinking skills.Children adopt good hygiene practices as they follow daily routines, and their independence is promoted well. For example, children wash their hands before snack time, and are encouraged to put on their own boots before they go outside.

There is a very positive atmosphere across the nursery. Children form good relationships with staff and their peers. Staff are caring and nurturing to the children and this is reflected by the children being kind to each other.

As a result, staff and children have fun and enjoy the activities together.Partnerships with parents are strong. The nursery provider offers a good range of initiatives to engage, support and build on parents' interests in their children's development.

For instance, the nursery newsletter includes ideas for play activities to encourage parents to support their children's learning at home.The nursery manager monitors staff performance and training needs to ensure all staff continue to develop their practice. There are plans to increase the opportunities for staff professional development, such as watching each other teach, to help them continually improve their skills.

However, these plans are in the early stages and need to be embedded further to achieve the full impact on children's learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Leaders have a good knowledge of how to support children's welfare.

They follow safe recruitment and vetting procedures, to ensure staff working with children are suitable. Staff have a robust understanding of safeguarding and child protection procedures. Staff know what to do and who to inform should they have any concerns about a child in their care.

They supervise children well and ensure any possible risks to children are effectively minimised or removed. Staff keep their knowledge up to date by accessing regular training.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build on opportunities to promote challenge in children's play to extend their thinking skills and support their learning even further nenhance arrangements to support staff to raise their teaching skills to the highest level.