Banana Moon Day Nursery Davyhulme

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and safe at this good-quality nursery. They have adapted well to adjustments in routines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, they happily greet staff on arrival and part from their parents with ease. An effective key-person system helps children to feel settled and secure throughout their time at the nursery. Staff get to know children well and prioritise building nurturing relationships with them.

Children have positive attitudes towards their learning and engage well in their play. For example, toddlers explore using magnets and work together to complete jigsaws. They enjoy opportunities to ...make and taste different foods, such as spring rolls.

Older children practise how to hold tools for writing. They make marks on paper and learn how to write their own names. Children show delight as they design 'a card for Daddy's birthday'.

They clean their paintbrushes and observe how the water 'turns brown'. Outdoors, children excitedly narrate and enact stories they have listened to. They giggle with joy and run away as they find the 'bear', using their imaginations.

Children show good physical skills and coordination as they climb up to the slide and as they balance along low-level apparatus.

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

Leaders have a clear vision of offering 'quality care and learning opportunities for all children'. Self-evaluation includes the views of children, staff and parents.

This helps leaders to identify ways to further improve. For example, redecoration to enhance the environment for the children is underway. Leaders provide staff with training and support which help to improve practice and contribute to staff's high levels of well-being.

Children, including those accessing funded places, make good progress. Overall, staff provide children with a curriculum which builds on what they already know and can do. For example, after listening to the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', children follow instructions to make porridge and practise their cutting skills by chopping plums.

However, the implementation of the curriculum does not always focus sharply on children's next steps in learning. For example, when children show an interest in counting, staff do not always provide opportunities to help children to consolidate or extend this learning.Children learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others.

For example, they learn about festivals such as Chinese New Year. Children are fascinated to receive pictures sent by their friends when they visit other countries. They learn about helping people less fortunate than themselves by collecting food for charity.

Staff share stories and songs with children. They introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary, such as 'scoop', 'crispy' and 'hot'. Some children use increasingly complex vocabulary, for example when saying that food travels to their 'large intestine'.

Having said this, some staff do not always fully promote children's thinking skills. For example, they do not always ask children challenging questions, or give them enough time to think when responding to questions.Children's growing independence is a priority.

Staff teach children to pour their own drinks and to use cutlery to serve and eat the healthy, nutritious food. Toddlers look into mirrors after eating as they clean their faces. Children develop good hygiene practices while washing their hands and helping to clean the tables after lunch.

They learn about safety while walking carefully down steps.Children are confident and well-behaved individuals. They use good manners, such as saying 'thank you'.

Children play well together and learn to negotiate, such as when choosing characters to be during role play. Staff encourage children's positive behaviours and reward them with praise and certificates.Partnership working is strong.

Leaders make good use of external support and establish links with the settings that children move on to. Parents report that their children's experiences in the nursery are entirely positive. They say that the communication from staff is 'brilliant, informative and helpful' and that their children make 'leaps and bounds' in their learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Leaders ensure that the premises are safe and secure. They follow robust recruitment procedures to make sure that staff are suitable to work with children.

Adult-to-child ratios are met and staff are well deployed to meet the needs of the children. Staff complete safeguarding training and this knowledge is kept up to date. They have a good understanding of safeguarding issues, such as county lines and female genital mutilation.

Staff know how to keep children safe and protected from harm. They understand the steps to follow should they have concerns about children's welfare or a colleague's conduct.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: refine the implementation of the curriculum, to focus sharply on children's next steps in learning strengthen staff's knowledge and skills around promoting children's thinking skills to a higher level.