Marble Hall Little Angels Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

All children receive a warm welcome from the enthusiastic staff team. Children settle quickly into their play when they arrive.

Children who are new to the setting are offered plenty of reassurance by their key person. Staff learn to speak key words in children's home languages and use these to help children who speak English as an additional language to settle. This helps to support the close and secure attachments between staff and children.

Children are happy, confident and engrossed in their learning. They enjoy taking part in sensory play activities which also provide opportunities for them to expand their use of ...vocabulary. For example, children wash dolls in a tub of soap and water and talk to staff about how the bubbles feel 'soft'.

Staff are passionate about working with and supporting children and their families. They set realistic boundaries for children's behaviour. Children learn to manage their own feelings and know what is expected of them.

They respond well to the praise and encouragement given by staff. Older and younger children are proud to show the stickers they have received from staff for their good behaviour and achievements.

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

The management and staff team understand how children learn and they have a good overview of how children are progressing in their development.

They identify which areas of learning children need more support with. Staff make this a focus when they interact with children and when planning the resources they provide. For example, staff promote pre-school children's mathematical skills effectively.

They discuss with children the numbers on a calculator and encourage them to select the correct numeral to represent numbers.Staff provide children with opportunities to take part in physical exercise and enjoy a healthy diet. They talk to children during lunchtime about the benefits of eating all of their food as it will give them 'strong muscles'.

Children use the area outside to ride on bikes, balance on beams and run.Staff are knowledgeable about their local community. They use this information to broaden children's experiences of their home, community and wider world.

For example, a local dentist visited the setting. Children learned about people who help them and about how to manage their own oral hygiene. Parents have since engaged with local dental services.

This promotes children's health and well-being well.Staff are extremely well supported by the management team. Staff comment how a reduction in their workload has had a positive impact on their opportunities to interact more with children.

New staff are helped to understand their roles and responsibilities within the nursery. All staff attend training and receive feedback from video observations of their practice. This helps them to reflect on their own practice and make improvements to the quality of their teaching.

Staff plan and provide a broad range of experiences to support children's physical and language skills. Younger children show curiosity and develop their physical skills as they investigate different types of fruit. They use knives with precision to carefully pick out the seeds from a pomegranate.

Children copy staff when the seeds burst out of the fruit and they all say 'pop, pop, pop' and clap their hands to illustrate the sound it makes. Staff encourage the children to squeeze the pomegranate. Children watch in awe as juice trickles out and say it is 'absolutely amazing'.

Children show respect and care for each other. They know to take turns and help others. For example, they help to clear up a drink spilt by their friend.

Staff encourage children to be polite during mealtimes. Children say 'please' and 'thank you' when they are passed some food.Parents speak extremely positively about the nursery and say the management and staff are 'more like family' to them.

They comment about how supportive the staff are when their children need extra attention. Parents know what progress their children are making and what they can do at home to further support their child's development.Staff provide children with good opportunities to be independent and make decisions about what they would like to play with.

Children are free to take part in many different activities both indoors and outside. Overall, children concentrate well. However, on occasions, some staff are less confident to re-focus children's attention when they become distracted from their chosen activity.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a good knowledge and understanding of their responsibilities to keep children safe from harm. They complete child protection training and know how to respond to any signs of abuse.

They also know what to do should there be an allegation made against a member of staff. The provider uses robust recruitment procedures to make sure all staff working with children are suitable to do so.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: help children to maintain their focus during activities, to further extend and challenge their learning.