The Secret Garden Children’s Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children show that they are very happy and settled in this warm and welcoming nursery. They have developed close bonds with the caring and nurturing staff. For instance, babies enjoy cuddles with staff when they wake up from sleeping and older children know who their key person is and confidently state that they would go to them if they needed help.

Children behave well. They are kind and caring towards each other and learn to share as they play cooperatively together. For instance, older children share a teapot well as they take it in turns to pour coloured water into cups.

Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, ...parents do not currently enter the nursery building. Staff still ensure that parents are fully aware of what their children have done while at nursery. For instance, they provide parents with a thorough handover when collecting their children.

They have also moved key information to where staff can still view it from outside the nursery.

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

Staff know the children well. They identify children's individual next steps in learning and provide activities that promote these effectively.

Staff interact well with children in their chosen play and extend activities well. For example, in the toddler room, children show delight as they use large tweezers to find bugs and insects in a tray of mud. This then leads on to painting the different things that they have discovered.

The management team has established a clear supervision process to help monitor staff practice and support their development. Staff complete a variety of training. For example, staff have developed prompts around the room to support them to extend children's vocabulary after attending training on communication and language.

Children have opportunities to enjoy fresh air and be physically active. They enjoy chasing staff and developing their balancing skills. However, staff do not always consider how they can fully utilise the outdoor area to support children who prefer to learn outdoors.

The manager has promoted a culture of reflective practice across the staff team. For example, staff develop their own room development plans. In one of the pre-school rooms, they have developed a cosy space where children can go to read and share stories.

This promotes children's literacy development effectively.Parents speak very highly of the nursery and the care their children receive. They comment that the staff are extremely supportive and friendly.

Staff keep parents updated about their children's day and share some general activities for parents to do at home. However, this could be developed further to ensure specific information about their child's next steps is shared to include how parents can support their child's learning at home.The management team and staff have high expectations for all children, and children develop good skills to support their future learning.

Staff are quick to respond when children need additional support. Partnership working with other settings and professionals is well established. The special educational needs coordinator works very well with parents, staff and other professionals to support children to make progress in their learning and development.

The management team use additional funding effectively to support children with a variety of needs. They recognise when families need extra support, identifying this early on and implementing interventions quickly. Additional funding is used well to support children's individual needs.

Children are confident learners and are eager to explore the activities on offer. For instance, babies show curiosity as they explore the texture of sand on their feet. They thoroughly enjoy staff pouring sand on their feet and then try to copy this.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager has excellent safeguarding knowledge and supports the staff team extremely well to develop their understanding of all aspects of safeguarding. Staff have a clear understanding of the signs and symptoms of abuse and what procedures to take should they have any concerns.

They know the action to take if they are not happy with how the manager deals with any concerns. The manager follows a clear, robust staff recruitment process to help ensure that staff are suitable for their roles.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance the curriculum for outdoor learning to ensure that those children who learn better outdoors have more opportunities to do so, and to support development across all areas of learning further develop information provided to parents about their child's next steps and the ways in which they can develop their children's learning at home to help them make even better progress.