Smiley Faces Day Nursery Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children enter this inspirational nursery with excitement and are warmly greeted by the enthusiastic staff.

Parents are invited to walk their children into their appropriate rooms and discuss their children's experiences and routines with their key person. This provides staff with an excellent understanding of the children's needs for the day and allows them to support them with nurturing individual care. Staff are attentive to children's needs and help them to feel safe and loved.

The inspirational team of staff display kindness and compassion to the children and each other. They demonstrate positive communicat...ion and use of manners. This provides children with positive role models and promotes exemplary behaviour throughout the nursery.

Children take part in stimulating multi-sensory activities, where they explore resources and experiment by mixing and pouring ingredients. They play cooperatively and share resources, managing their own learning and solving problems independently. The experienced staff offer stimulating questions and encourage children to extend their vocabulary.

For instance, when staff ask what is happening to their mixtures, children describe that the jelly dissolves in water. At lunchtime, staff take part in engaging conversations with children about healthy eating. Children confidently explain that it is okay to eat a variety of foods in moderation.

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

The inspirational manager and staff have created a family ethos of love and mutual respect. This is visible consistently throughout the nursery. Staff get to know each family very well, including those that they are key person to.

This enables the creative team to deliver a meaningful curriculum that focuses on extending opportunities for children and offering new experiences. Staff skilfully assess children's starting points and create personalised next steps. Children make excellent progress and are confident, independent learners.

The creative staff at this nursery make excellent use of their local environment to strengthen the quality of experiences that take place. Children visit the horse paddock and learn how to safely feed carrots to the horses. They benefit from opportunities to travel by bus and train to local museums and parks.

These experiences broaden children's knowledge of the world and teach them about equality and diversity. The inspirational manager recognises the value of imaginative play in developing children's language and communication skills and creativity. She provides children with drama workshops to enhance their skills and uses evaluation of these activities to drive improvement in role-play provision in the nursery.

Staff in the nursery are highly efficient at identifying gaps in children's development. They converse with parents immediately to discuss and address any concerns. The special educational needs coordinator creates personalised learning plans for children, identifying specific areas of need and targets for their development.

She refers children to appropriate agencies for external support and follows advice from professionals. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make excellent progress from their starting points. Staff work closely with school staff to support a smooth transition for children moving on to school.

Parents are extremely grateful for the care and devotion that staff provide to their children. They state that their children make excellent progress due to the valuable experiences that the nursery staff offer. Parents understand what their children are learning at nursery and how to further support them at home.

Staff regularly share children's next steps through the online parent portal and through written assessments. Parents are given ideas about how they can support number sequencing and reading with their children.The manager identifies the importance of outdoor learning in enhancing children's physical development.

This is an area of ongoing development in the nursery. Children take part in engaging learning opportunities to enhance their fine motor skills. Babies practise filling and emptying containers with rice.

Older children enhance their hand and finger strength through opportunities to squeeze water from spray bottles and when mark making with chalks on blackboards. Staff extend opportunities for children to develop their larger muscles by balancing and jumping. They negotiate space and practise throwing and catching a variety of balls.

Staff speak highly of the motivational manager. They feel that their well-being is prioritised and that they can discuss any concerns with her. Staff are fully aware of their developmental needs.

They have regular supervision opportunities, including peer observations. This offers staff opportunities to discuss and reflect on their practice. Staff address their own professional development needs by accessing an online training platform.

They use this to strengthen their knowledge and skills and to develop their quality of teaching.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is a strong safeguarding culture within the nursery, and children's safety is the priority.

The manager has created a robust recruitment process that ensures all staff are strictly vetted to ensure their suitability to work with children. The manager and staff complete rigorous risk assessments to minimise risk to children attending the nursery. There are four designated safeguarding lead practitioners within the nursery.

They are all aware of the importance of their role and their responsibilities. The manager and staff have an excellent knowledge of the signs and symptoms of abuse. They can describe what they would do if they have concerns about the welfare of a child in their care.

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