Little Oaks Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and feel safe and secure in this friendly and caring setting.

Staff provide children with a range of exciting activities that they enjoy. For example, babies develop their senses and fine motor skills as they squash and squeeze fruits in scented water. Older children use warm water and ice cubes to mix and make fragrant tea.

Staff play alongside children, engaging in purposeful conversations with them to support their language and communication skills. For example, they model and repeat vocabulary such as 'cold' and 'frozen' as they explain and describe the melting ice. Children develop important phy...sical skills as they play outside in the fresh air.

They run, climb and balance their way along wooden beams. Children happily take turns to ride on bikes, carefully steering and coordinating their way around obstacles. Staff are attentive to the needs of children.

They support young children to use their feet to push themselves along on small vehicles. Staff regularly share stories with children. Children play imaginatively together as they recall and role play familiar stories they have enjoyed.

They excitedly go on bear hunts with staff, trekking through the long grass and crunching through the leaves. Young children develop gross motor skills as they excitedly paint fence panels with foam. They smile happily as staff recognise and praise the marks they make.

This builds children's self-esteem and confidence.

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

Managers and staff are highly knowledgeable about early childhood development. They implement a topic-led curriculum that is play based and reflects the developing needs of children.

Information is gathered from parents about what their children already know and can do as they arrive at the setting. Staff use this information alongside ongoing observation to identify starting points for children's learning. They assess and track children's progress to identify what it is they need to learn next.

Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress in their learning as a result.Staff know the children in their care extremely well. They understand and talk confidently about what children need to learn next.

Staff plan activities and learning opportunities that reflect children's personal interests and enjoyment. However, recent revisions made to the way in which children's learning is planned are not yet securely practiced across the setting. This means that on occasion, teaching is not sharply focused enough on what children need to learn next.

Children learn independence skills. For example, babies learn how to use a spoon to eat their meals, and toddlers confidently drink from open cups. At mealtimes, older children serve themselves vegetables from a bowl and pour their own drinks from a water bottle.

Children learn how to take care of their toys and other resources as they help staff to tidy them away in preparation for new activities. Children begin to develop a sense of responsibility as they learn how to take care of their learning environment.Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour, and they behave well as a result.

Children demonstrate care and kindness towards each other. They respectfully follow instructions given to them by staff. Routines are well established across the setting.

However, at times, these routines do not help children to move smoothly from one activity to another. For example, children do not always go out to play promptly after putting on their coats. Children wait around unnecessarily and therefore can become disengaged in learning.

Children develop their understanding of early mathematical concepts. For example, when playing with animal figures, children confidently line up dinosaurs in size order. Staff regularly sing number rhymes and songs with children.

This supports their counting skills and deepens their understanding of numbers. This prepares children well for the next stage of their education at school.Staff attend regular supervision sessions.

They feel supported in their roles and feel that their well-being is considered. Managers and leaders effectively evaluate the quality of practice and provision across the setting to identify areas for further development. Staff receive focused targets to develop their knowledge and skills.

They have access to online training and face-to-face support that is routinely available to them.Parents speak highly about the setting. They report that their children are happy and feel safe and secure.

Parents explain that they receive regular information about the good progress made by their children. They know how to support their children's learning at home. They comment that the staff are extremely caring and attentive to the needs of their children.

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: deploy staff more effectively around transition times to ensure children's learning is continuous nembed new processes across the staff team to enhance children's learning.