Cornerstone Day Nursery & Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive at the nursery happy and ready to learn. They are greeted by familiar staff and settle quickly. They have good emotional attachments to staff.

Children are progressing well and develop good levels of self-esteem and confidence. Babies enjoy exploring sensory texture activities set up by staff. They smile as they run their hands through the sand and paint.

They are consistently given eye contact when spoken to and sung to throughout the day. This supports their communication and language development. Older children develop their imagination and creativity through role play.

They enjoy retelling ...stories such as, 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' and use everyday objects to recreate scenes from the story. Staff role model good social skills when having lunch with the children. Children are spoken to about healthy eating and good manners.

Staff take this opportunity to talk about different foods. Children are encouraged to pour their own water and scrape their plates when they have finished eating. This supports the children's understanding of food and promotes independence.

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

The leadership team has high expectations of children and staff. The special educational needs coordinator understands the local referral procedures and knows how to access additional support and advice for children. Staff receive support to gain recognised qualifications across the setting.

Staff observe children's interaction and join in with their play. They use these opportunities to extend children's learning. For example, by asking open-ended questions, singing, and storytelling.

This supports children to make good progress with language development, along with their personal, social, and emotional development.Children's progress is monitored closely by staff. The staff reflect on children's progress and how children are engaging throughout each activity.

This ensures children are making ongoing progress in their development. The learning offered is adaptable and open to change to follow the children's interests.There is a strong sense of community within the nursery.

Parents speak highly of staff and say how happy their children are. Parents are kept up to date throughout the day on their child's progress and overall development via the nursery's electronic application.Leaders hold weekly meetings with staff which offer an opportunity for staff to reflect on their practice and the progress made by children.

However, on occasion, staff are unclear of the learning intentions of adult-led activities. This is something the management team acknowledge and are working to address.Children enjoy most of the learning opportunities provided by the staff and make good progress.

However, on occasion, staff do not always think of how to deliver learning fully effectively in order to have the best possible impact. For example, during a puppet show activity to support children to learn about their emotions, some children became disengaged and older children were not challenged sufficiently.Children are able to make choices about indoor and outdoor learning.

They show a strong understanding of the rules in the setting and staff promote positive behaviour well. In the garden, they are able to enjoy outdoor play. However, this can cause frustration at times, when objects in the environment cause children to stop and start activities.

For example, when riding tricycles, children run into a lot of obstacles. This limits the children's opportunity to strengthen their physical skills.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The leadership team and staff have a good understanding of safeguarding and how to keep children safe. All staff have completed the required safeguarding training and are able to talk through how they would handle different safeguarding scenarios. Staff have a secure knowledge of local safeguarding procedures and where to report concerns.

Staff are able to identify the signs of abuse and what to do if they had concerns. All necessary steps are taken to ensure that children remain safe while in their care.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nensure that leaders are consistently monitoring the implementation of the curriculum to make sure that children are challenged across the setting continue to develop the outdoor space to ensure that children's opportunities for physical development are strengthened.