Oaks Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy, settled and confident at the setting. They thoroughly enjoy the challenging and motivating activities that staff carefully plan for them. For example, younger children enjoy learning about different animals as they read a book about the farm.

They go on to use animals dipped in paint to make different patterns in their play. Older children enjoy planting seeds and watching them grow after reading a well-known story about a beanstalk. Children develop good communication skills and are confident to share their thoughts and ideas.

All children enjoy singing activities and older children answer thought-...provoking questions with confidence. Children develop good social skills. They play happily together and share and take turns with resources maturely.

Children are polite and behave well. Children of all ages have good opportunities to develop and challenge their physical skills. They enjoy exploring different ways that they can move their bodies, for instance during regular yoga activities.

Children learn about similarities and differences between places around the world. This includes making Chinese dragon costumes and exploring music from other countries. For example, children enjoy dancing to Spanish music.

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

All staff get to know individual children and their likes and dislikes well. This supports staff to plan motivating and engaging learning experiences that they know will interest children. It also helps to ensure that children of all ages make good progress, including those who speak English as an additional language.

Staff establish secure and trusting relationships with children and this helps them to develop a good sense of belonging and positive levels of well-being.Staff have a good understanding of all areas of learning and ensure that children have a wide range of activities and resources in both the indoor and outdoor environments. Overall, all children are engaged in their learning experiences.

However, at times, staff are not vigilant to quickly identify children who would benefit from adult interaction. They are not always aware when it would be appropriate to step in and support a child to fully join in during group activities.The manager closely monitors the good quality of education and care that staff provide children.

She routinely observes staff teach and provides them with helpful feedback to support their future performance. Staff evaluate their practice well as a team. For instance, at the end of each day they discuss what activities they feel have been a success and what they can adapt and extend next time they complete them.

Staff make good use of regular training. For example, they have recently learned about the different ways to communicate with children. As a result of their training, staff have introduced different communication techniques, such as sign language.

This has helped children to develop their communication skills.Staff have worked hard as a team to ensure that the setting is hygienic and safe, and overall have succeeded in doing this. However, they do not always ensure that all children consistently understand and follow the hygiene rules, such as wiping their nose.

Staff build and maintain positive partnerships with parents. They keep them fully involved and informed in their children's learning. Staff share daily photographs with parents showing their children's achievements.

They share a wide range of resources and equipment with parents for them to enjoy at home together with their children. This includes bicycles, games and books.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported by staff to make good progress.

Staff liaise closely with outside professionals and implement useful strategies to support children, such as using picture cards to aid their communication. This helps children to follow routines and make their needs known. Staff help provide children with a consistently good approach to their development.

Staff use additional funding effectively to meet the individual needs of children. For example, they have purchased healthy and balanced meals for children to enjoy at lunchtime.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

All staff, including the manager, have a good knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and child protection. They know who to contact to seek advice and how to follow up any concerns. This includes knowing how to deal with an allegation raised against a member of staff.

The manager ensures that all required checks are carried out to ensure that they recruit safe and suitable staff. Staff complete thorough risk assessments to help keep children safe. This includes practice to minimise the risk of COVID-19.

Children learn how to keep themselves safe. For instance, they enjoy using challenging equipment safely, such as swinging and moving along hanging bars.

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 be more vigilant to identify when a child would benefit from adult interaction to further encourage their enjoyment in learning help staff to fully understand the importance of ensuring all children consistently follow good hygiene routines.

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