The Secret Garden Private Day Nursery (attenborough)

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children appear happy and content in this friendly nursery. They develop positive attachments with staff and demonstrate they feel safe and secure. Children quickly become engaged in their play and learning and move round the homely environment confidently.

They have an eagerness to learn and play. This is evident as children relish exploring the paint. They smear the paint and make swirls and circles with their hands.

This helps to strengthen their fingers and wrists for early writing and their future learning.Children behave well. They learn to play cooperatively together, share the toys and take turns.

For ...example, as children fix the train track they carefully place the pieces accurately together, taking turns. They say, 'Your turn, my turn', and continue until the track is complete. Children use the track and use their imagination as they pretend to be train drivers.

They move the trains along the track saying, 'Choo, choo we're off.'Staff have high expectations for children. They know the children well and plan activities to help their individual learning goals.

For instance, staff plan activities to help babies learn to feed themselves and hold spoons. Babies hold the spoons well. They scoop up cereal in their play and fill and empty containers.

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

The managers are ambitious and reflective. They support staff effectively and conduct supervisions and appraisals to help develop the quality of education. Staff benefit from a rigorous induction and gain a thorough understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

Staff attend online training opportunities to help build on their skills and knowledge. For example, they recently attended a course on how two-year-olds learn. This led to them changing the layout of the toddler room to help develop the children's curiosity.

Despite this, some staff in the toddler room do not know precisely what it is they want children to learn. Therefore, children are not able to reach their maximum progress, especially when taking part in planned focus activities.The managers know their curriculum.

They follow children's individual interests and provide activities to help children learn and explore. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities have tailored support to help meet their needs and aid their learning and development.Staff are good role models for speaking.

They make eye contact and speak to children face to face. Staff repeat words the children say and provide a running commentary for babies. However, in the toddler room, staff sometimes ask too many questions.

They do not give the children time to answer before moving on to ask another question. This does not help children to understand or to practise their own speaking.Children relish playing with the dinosaurs, broccoli and play dough.

They pretend the broccoli is a tree and encourage the dinosaurs to eat the tree. Staff adapt this activity well, for example, they encourage children to count the dinosaurs, developing their early mathematics. Children further develop this area of the curriculum as they learn to fill and empty water into different sized containers and sing counting songs.

Staff work with parents and other professionals, such as schools and a family officer, when children need extra support. Parents speak highly of the nursery and are aware of the progress their children are making. Staff keep parents well informed about their children's progress and work with them to meet their child's individual care needs.

They consistently exchange information that helps parents fully understand their child's learning. Staff share ideas on what parents can do to support their child at home.Staff promote children's behaviour and independence effectively.

Children follow the nursery routine and know the rules, such as washing their hands before snack, to help their good self-care skills and understanding of hygiene. Children put on their own shoes to venture into the outside area. Children thoroughly enjoy the activities outside.

They run about in the garden, climb, balance and use a range of balls to learn how to kick and catch.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The managers ensure concerns about a child's safety or well-being are referred to the appropriate agencies promptly.

Staff are well trained in child protection procedures and wider safeguarding issues, such as the 'Prevent' duty. Staff refresh their safeguarding knowledge effectively in monthly staff meetings. This ensures that staff have a secure understanding of the signs and symptoms of different types of abuse that may indicate that children are at risk of harm.

Managers use risk assessment effectively to ensure that children's safety remains a high priority. They have robust recruitment procedures and complete ongoing checks to help ensure the suitability of staff.

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 review their practice and focus more rigorously on what they want children to learn when delivering planned focused activities, so each child receives the best possible learning outcomes develop staff's understanding of how to use questions with children, in order to increase their thinking and language skills.