Homestead Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive at the nursery with their parents or carers. Staff are warm and welcoming; they develop positive relationships with families and children.

This helps children to enter the nursery happily and confidently. If children need more support, staff give them a reassuring hug. The staff use what they know about children to create experiences they may not get elsewhere.

For example, children visit libraries and parks within their local community.All children have positive attitudes to learning and engage for prolonged periods of time. The children are happy to share their ideas with one another when asked by sta...ff.

For example, when children look at pumpkin seeds, they talk about growing their own pumpkins and tasting them. Children work together and respect one another. Older children go to wash their hands, and as more children enter the space, they order each other into a queue and wait their turn.

Children are supported to develop skills towards independence. For example, staff give younger children wipes to wash their own faces after breakfast. Older children are supported to pour their drinks, independently wash their hands, go to the toilet or feed themselves.

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

Managers and staff understand child development and what they want children to learn. They plan their environments and activities to support children's readiness towards their next stages of learning, including children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language.Children's communication and language are supported well.

Staff consistently introduce new language; they talk to children regularly and repeat words back to them. All children experience stories and rhymes throughout the day. Staff make eye contact while they model, and label objects for younger children.

Older children confidently join in conversations with staff. Staff skilfully extend children's language as they introduce new words and ask questions.Children are supported to develop mathematically.

Younger children use a spoon to scoop coloured rice into bowls. Staff count from one to five, and they use language such as 'big' and 'little' to talk about size. Older children are encouraged to notice more and to fill their pumpkins with water.

At group time, older children sing and count the monkeys left on the bed; they count backwards with staff as the five monkeys fall off.Staff support children to develop their emotions. Staff label how younger children are feeling and support them when necessary.

Staff encourage older children to identify how they are feeling and discuss how they can make each other feel happy when they feel sad or angry.Parents and carers are very happy with the nursery. They share how well supported they are, in their own circumstances, as well as with their children's development.

They state staff share information regularly about their child's day, as well as being offer strategies and ideas to support their children's behaviour and learning at home.Staff share they feel well supported and can discuss aspects of work and personal lives with the manager. The manager offers support to staff through regular supervision meetings.

This helps staff and managers to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement, which supports staff to develop their practice with children. For example, staff attend training about Autism. They state this has helped them to feel more confident to support children's individual needs.

Generally, children are supported to behave well. Younger children are shown how to use resources appropriately. Most children are prompted, when necessary, with instructions how to behave.

However, children are not fully supported to understand the reasons for what is expected of them. For example, at lunchtime when children bang their hands on the table, they are told to stop doing this. However, staff do not support them to understand why this behaviour is unwanted.

Children are encouraged to try a range of foods, even if they have tried them before. However, they are not always supported to understand which food choices are healthy. For example, as children sit together at mealtimes, staff do not always talk with them about the benefits of the foods they are eating.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff and managers have a strong knowledge of signs and symptoms of abuse. They attend safeguarding training to support their knowledge of local safeguarding concerns, such as county lines and families being radicalised.

Staff and managers are confident to make a referral to appropriate agencies if required. Managers and staff maintain strong communication between agencies, to continue to support families and their children. The staff and managers ensure the environment is safe for children.

They undertake regular risk assessments of the environment and make adaptations where necessary. Managers follow a rigorous recruitment process to ensure new staff are suitable to work with children.

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 develop a more consistent approach to helping children understand why certain behaviours are unwanted develop staffs' knowledge to help them support children to understand the benefits of different food choices.