Tiptoes Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy playing and exploring in this safe environment. Babies enjoy sensory experiences and thoroughly enjoy splashing in the water tray. The youngest children enjoy playing with equipment, such as the climbing frame in their room.

This supports their physical development, enhances their balancing skills and helps them to manage risks. Toddlers develop physical coordination while being outside, and older children begin to develop the skills they need to move on to school. For example, they independently line up and serve themselves lunch.

Children's behaviour is very positive. They are praised for using good ma...nners, such as saying 'please' and 'thank you'. Children learn routines to help them be independent, including finding their own coats and making choices.

Children develop a love of books. They listen to and join in with a wide range of stories and songs. Staff select 'focus books' that they regularly share with children.

Children enjoy retelling and reciting key parts from these stories that they know in depth. This helps children to increase their range of vocabulary, which they use well.Older children are confident speakers.

They recall events that have happened in their life, such as eating ice cream with their family. They express preferences, such as naming their favourite foods, and staff follow this interest to talk about healthy and unhealthy choices.

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

Staff have high expectations for children and complete statutory assessments.

These are shared with families who, in turn, share these with other professionals, such as their health visitor. This provides a robust assessment of the child's developmental levels and supports their learning well overall.Parental feedback is very positive, and they talk about how happy they are with the care their children receive at the nursery.

Partnership working with parents is evident throughout the nursery. Parental preferences about the foods their children can eat are taken into account. Children enjoy a healthy and balanced diet of homemade food and fresh fruit and vegetables.

Staff support children to be kind, caring and respectful of each other. Children have excellent social skills and enjoy chatting with each other. Children play happily with their friends, and any minor disagreements are quickly sorted out.

Staff are always on hand to help resolve any upsets.Staff undertake training to help them to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They tailor their provision to take account of children's individual needs to help them make good progress in their learning.

Staff provide exciting activities for children. They show high levels of engagement as they splash in the water. However, there are times when staff implement routines that do not allow children to remain fully engaged in their learning.

For example, when staff want to access the outside area, they move children who are playing in the water inside. This results in children becoming frustrated when they do not want to leave the task. This impacts on their ability to fully engage in their learning.

Staff support children to develop their speaking and listening skills and engage children well in conversations. However, although some staff have started to use strategies, such as signing, with the youngest children, this is not consistently implemented, to fully extend children's skills.Children delight in joining in with repeated phrases from stories and enjoy the anticipation of what comes next.

Staff use puppets and other props to help children understand the sequence of events in stories.Staff have a good understanding of how well children are progressing in their learning. They use this knowledge to plan interesting activities, such as mark making with chunky cars and paint, to develop children's early writing skills.

Staff provide patient care to the very few children who need extra help to manage their emotions. They work with parents to provide a consistent approach to the child to help them manage and express their feelings in a positive way.The nursery provides resource packs for families who are encouraged to take them home to share with their children.

This provides continuity in children's learning, both at home and in the nursery.Staff provide a range of opportunities for children to learn about their community and the importance of helping others. For example, children bring in items for harvest festival that will be donated to a local food bank.

The management team are dedicated to promoting staff's well-being. A range of activities have been implemented to monitor their mental health. These include holding regular supervision meetings, giving access to varied training courses and having an 'open-door' policy to be available for any of the team who need specific support.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The nursery prioritises children's safety. The director manages recruitment processes well, and all records are clear and well organised.

The management team and staff are vigilant for signs and symptoms of abuse, and they understand their safeguarding responsibilities. They talk about what they have learned from recent training and explain the process they would follow if they had any concerns about a child or staff member.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: review how routine activities are implemented to enable children to engage in activities to fully extend their learning support staff to consistently implement strategies to support children's language skills, to develop their skills even further.