Rhymes Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happily and are eager to explore the nursery.

They show delight, leaving their parents with confidence. Children are greeted with a warm welcome from managers and staff on arrival. They feel safe and secure with the close attachments they have with staff.

Children are excited by the variety of challenging and inspiring activities. They show high levels of engagement during play. Staff have high aspirations for every child to succeed and do well.

Children's behaviour is good, and staff consistently use praise and encouragement to support children to behave well. Children explore leaf printing ou...tdoors. They look at leaves and conkers and discuss the shapes with staff, painting them in a range of autumn colours.

Younger children's needs are supported to develop their sensory skills. Staff are caring and sensitive to the needs of babies. They provide a nurturing environment for babies to develop their early learning.

For example, staff skilfully respond to babies' needs and reassure them when feeling tired. They support younger babies to explore, touch and feel the natural autumn items collected. Children communicate with staff during a soup-making activity.

Staff extend children's learning and question children about the different types of vegetables they use to make soup. Children name potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Staff respond to children with praise for recognising and naming the vegetables.

Children help to chop vegetables safely. Staff teach children to develop an awareness of food by encouraging them to touch, feel and smell a leek.

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

Leadership and management are strong.

The manager is passionate about the children's learning and the experiences they have in nursery. She has a clear vision for children to succeed and be fully prepared for school. The manager motivates staff to embed the early years curriculum and support the children's interests.

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some children need support with their language and communication. Staff ensure that children develop their language and communication skills, using group time to read stories.

For example, staff question children about each animal they take from the story sack. They eagerly show a camel, snake and lion to the rest of the group. Children are motivated to respond and talk about the animals they see in the book.

Consequently, children's communication is supported and extended.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported extremely well. For example, the manager and staff are proactive in seeking support from professionals to obtain advice and intervention for children.

As a result, children with SEND make good progress.Parent partnerships are well established and are highly effective in enhancing children's learning. Staff carry out home visits and hold open-day events to meet children and families.

Parents report on the individualised care that staff provide for children. They are updated regularly about their child's daily routine and progress children make in their learning. However, this is not always consistent.

Some parents are unclear about the key-person system and their child's learning.The manager is well informed about the children and families who attend the nursery. She places high priority on providing children with unique experiences and uses local authority funding well to close the gaps in children's learning.

For example, some children have less opportunity to visit places of interest or learn about the community and wider world. Staff plan trips and visits to help children understand the world around them. Children visit a variety of places locally and take trips further afield.

As a result, the funding ensures that every child is included.Staff are supported well and have opportunities to take part in peer observations to improve their practice. Staff meetings are held to discuss relevant nursery issues and information is cascaded to staff by the manager.

Staff access mandatory training, and newly appointed apprentices are starting their formal qualifications. However, staff do not always have opportunities to extend their knowledge further to increase their quality of teaching.Children's physical development is promoted.

Children have access to the outdoors. This is rotated during the day to allow older and younger children to enjoy being physically active. Children develop physical skills as they climb, run and play games with adults.

Handwashing takes place regularly throughout the day. Children are encouraged to wash hands before meals, after messy activities and after using the toilet. Staff teach children to be healthy and talk to children about making healthy choices during mealtimes.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have robust knowledge of child protection. They have a clear understanding of the signs and symptoms of abuse or when a child may be at risk of harm.

New staff receive an appropriate safeguarding induction to ensure that their responsibilities are clear. Staff have secure knowledge of the setting's procedures to follow in the event of a concern, or where an allegation is made against adults working with children. Staff keep up to date with mandatory safeguarding training.

The manager ensures that recruitment procedures are followed, along with regular checks that staff are suitable to work with children. All areas of the nursery are regularly risk assessed and staff ratios are well maintained.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen training and coaching to identify staff's training needs promptly and raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high level nensure all parents are aware of who their child's key person is and the progress their child is making.