Seesaws Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are well behaved and have a clear understanding of what staff expect from them.

They learn how to behave in different situations, such as when they walk around the setting and sit sensibly to have meals. Children have good social skills and readily involve adults and other children in their play. They are motivated to play and learn, engage well in activities and show high levels of concentration.

For example, babies eagerly explore a range of sensory materials and objects. They carefully use their fingers to pick up food to feed themselves and examine a collection of natural materials with interest. Children ...aged between two and three years sustain their interests well as they use musical instruments to create tunes and sounds.

Staff recognise how to extend and build on this interest to skilfully support children's language development and mathematical understanding. Children develop good levels of independence, and staff help them to build confidence to manage everyday tasks for themselves. Staff follow effective hygiene routines to support children's good health.

Children learn about the importance of washing their hands and explore their understanding of germs. Children enjoy nutritionally balanced meals, snacks and drinks. Babies recognise when they need to drink water and access this for themselves.

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

Leaders and staff have worked hard to successfully address the weaknesses identified at the previous inspection to improve the quality of the provision for children. The provider has invested well in the staff to help them to feel valued and to develop their practice and confidence. Leaders provide staff with good support, guidance and coaching to help them to improve their professional skills.

Recent training has helped staff to improve the arrangements for supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who speak English as an additional language. Staff work closely with other agencies involved in children's care and development to implement targeted plans to support their individual needs. Staff make careful adjustments to activities to ensure all children can participate.

Leaders make good use of additional funding and use this to benefit individual children and their families.Self-evaluation is effective. Leaders monitor the quality of teaching and children's learning effectively.

However, they do not review staff's planning of children's learning experiences as rigorously as possible. At times, staff working with pre-school children do not provide them with the most ambitious learning experiences to challenge them fully. However, staff have a good understanding of how younger children learn, and they skilfully help all children to achieve success in their learning.

Children make good progress. They acquire a wide range of useful skills that prepare them well for school. Staff provide children with a varied learning environment that motivates them to play and to make new discoveries.

However, they do not consider how to make the best use of the outdoor provision to support children's learning as fully as possible.Staff have strong partnerships with parents from the outset. They work closely with parents of new children to establish their starting points and needs.

They continue to keep them well informed about their child's development. Parents appreciate the useful ideas and activities staff provide them with, such as a lending library. This helps to support children's continued learning at home.

Staff support children's communication and language development skilfully. They help babies to build a wide vocabulary and support them well as they begin to combine words to form sentences. Babies join in enthusiastically with songs and rhymes.

Pre-school children use language articulately to express their good ideas. For example, they develop exciting storylines in their play, such as discovering mermaids as they pretend to be on a pirate adventure.Staff help children to build their understanding of the world.

Toddlers learn about the seasonal changes and follow instructions well as they help to collect leaves. Pre-school children investigate a collection of lenses and explore how these create different effects when they look through them. Children progress well with their literacy skills and mathematical understanding.

They eagerly experiment with writing, enjoy listening to stories and use their mathematical understanding in everyday life, such as noticing when a drink container is heavy.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The provider ensures that all staff receive effective training relating to safeguarding matters.

Leaders and staff have a good understanding of the signs that may indicate a child is at risk of harm, and know how to seek help to protect them. Staff know what to do should they have concerns about the conduct of a colleague. Leaders use effective strategies to ensure that staff can identify potential hazards to children and take prompt action.

They follow robust recruitment procedures to ensure the suitability of staff. New staff receive a thorough induction to ensure they are clear about their roles and responsibilities to keep children safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: monitor the planning for pre-school children more rigorously to identify where staff need to plan children's play experiences more precisely and maximise the learning potential nextend further the learning opportunities for children who learn best outdoors to help them make the best possible progress.