Cliffe House Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The management team is enthusiastic and sets high expectations for the quality of children's care and education. Managers continually look at ways to develop the childcare provision, such as introducing new initiatives to boost children's and staff's mental health and well-being.

Managers and staff are committed to building on their links with the local community. There is a shared focus to raise the profile of the setting within the local town. They are proud of their successful partnership with the local nursing home and this helps to support children's learning experiences.

Older children visit the library for weekl...y story sessions with the librarian. This helps children familiarise themselves with different surroundings as well as encouraging an early love of literacy. Children are happy and settled.

An established key-person system helps children to form positive relationships and build secure attachments with staff. Polite and courteous relationships between staff help to provide a good model for children's behaviour. Children behave well and are respectful, kind and well mannered.

Children are actively and consistently praised by staff for their efforts and achievements. This results in children developing good levels of confidence and determination to succeed.

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

Staff encourage children from a young age to develop a real interest in books.

Children select books independently, turn the pages and point at the pictures. Staff engage children well as they animatedly read familiar stories. Younger children join in with familiar words and phrases and show good levels of engagement.

Transitions into the nursery and between rooms are managed well. Staff work with parents to ensure their children settle with ease. Gradual settling-in sessions help children to feel emotionally secure from the start.

Staff working with babies provide plenty of cuddles and reassurance to ease them gently into nursery.There are effective partnerships with parents. Parents feel welcomed and involved in their children's care.

They speak highly about the 'kind and supportive' staff team.Children have lots of opportunities to play outside in an excellent learning environment. They are highly motivated and select from an extensive range of high-quality resources which promote their health.

Managers make good use of additional funding and use this to benefit individual children and their families. Staff get to know children and have a good understanding of their abilities. They play alongside children and join in with their play.

However, staff do not consistently focus their teaching and interactions on what individual children need to learn next.Children thoroughly enjoy being physically active. Activities such as parachute games teach them to work together as a team.

Children coordinate their movements so they do not have accidents, and they show extremely good awareness of each other's space.Children have good opportunities to develop their mathematical skills. For example, they confidently count and discuss quantities as they enjoy weighing activities.

Older children learn to recognise numerals and record them.Self-evaluation is effective. Managers 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 are not always clear about the learning that they expect from an activity.Babies enjoy many sensory experiences.

For instance, they are fascinated by feeling the texture of flour as they search for items in a tray. Staff encourage them to listen and think about their actions as they quietly narrate the babies' actions to them and praise their successes.Staff benefit from regular supervision meetings with managers that help them to reflect and develop their practice.

Managers encourage staff to use a range of methods to develop their knowledge and skills, including training courses, research and wider reading.

Safeguarding

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

Managers 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. Managers 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: nensure all staff are aware of, and know how to help meet, children's individual next steps in their learning to ensure they make the best possible progress monitor the staff's planning for children rigorously, to identify where staff need to plan children's play experiences more precisely, so they are clear about the learning objective of each activity.