Little Minds Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

All children are included and supported to make good progress from their individual starting points. Children's safety is maintained due to the vigilance of the staff team. Parents report how inclusive management and staff are in meeting their children's needs.

Management has identified the key skills children should develop as they progress through the nursery. For example, staff build on children's independence skills. Babies are encouraged to learn to feed themselves.

As children move through to the room for two-year-olds and then the pre-school rooms, they are encouraged to serve their own meals. Staff sit and eat ...with the children, modelling good social skills, manners and use of cutlery. At snack time, children are also encouraged to learn how to use knives safely to chop their own fruit.

Staff provide further opportunities for children to practise these skills as children access safety knives and real vegetables in the home corner.Children are happy, behave well and feel secure with staff. Each child has a key person, with whom they develop a secure attachment.

Children seek out these familiar adults, obtaining reassurance when needed. Staff listen to children and take account of their choices. Children are given a choice between two different snacks and two different books.

They make their choices known by placing a conker in the chosen linked jar. Staff help children to learn that the one with the most votes will be chosen. This simple, effective approach introduces children to the concept of democracy.

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

Management continually evaluates the quality of provision, making amendments and improvements where necessary. Management supports staff well-being and their continuous professional development. These actions ensure that children continue to benefit from good standards of care and learning.

Staff carefully plan the environment and activities in each room to ensure they are inviting and purposeful. Activities are often planned around a book and linked to the overall nursery curriculum. Each staff member is aware of the needs and abilities of their key children.

They use this knowledge to adapt activities further so that they can help their key children build on their prior knowledge and skills.Mats are used throughout the nursery so that children begin to learn that it is time to sit, listen and focus during small-group activities and discussions. Staff read pre-school children a story, and they ask them questions to engage them and promote their communication skills.

Children are excited as the staff member encourages them to take turns as they select and identify animals out of a box.Staff sing a fairy song and roll a light-up ball to two-year-olds so that they know it is their turn to speak. Children choose which song they would like to sing by picking associated objects out of a basket.

Younger children join in with the actions to songs, while older children recall and sing the words.Similar opportunities are provided for both toddlers and babies. However, in the baby room, these activities are not delivered as effectively.

Staff use sand timers and tambourines so that two-year-olds know and understand when there is going to be a change to the routine. In the baby room, however, staff just advise the babies that it is tidy-up time and then singing time. This results in only half of the children joining the singing activity, with the other children missing out on this valuable learning experience.

Numbers are set up around the rooms, enabling children to access these in their play. Staff encourage children to count, and they introduce them to lots of mathematical language during their play.All staff continually chat to children as they play.

Staff in the baby room link words to objects and actions to support young children's vocabulary. Pre-school staff ask questions to encourage older children's communication skills. However, when complex words arise in stories, they do not consistently use the opportunity to explain the meaning of the words to the children.

Staff introduce simple words and sentences to two-year-olds. However, not all staff encourage these children to verbalise back to them.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are promptly identified and supported.

Focused learning plans are introduced, and staff work closely with other professionals to ensure children's needs are met and gaps in their development begin to close. Additional funding is spent wisely to the benefit of children's learning.

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: consider how to encourage babies to participate more fully with singing and rhymes consider how to promote pre-school children's understanding of new words and two- to three-year-old children's use of language. consistently.

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