Woolton Village Day Nursery Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children do not make consistently good progress in their learning. This is because the provider has not given enough attention to the quality of care and education. While staff-to-child ratios are met, the provider does not deploy staff effectively.

Too often, children are not cared for by their key person. Frequent changes to staffing occur at the start of the day. This limits the youngest children's ability to settle in quickly and begin their play and learning.

Despite this, children are safe and content.Staff demonstrate caring and respectful relationships with children. As a result, children feel safe and secure.
...>
Babies seek out staff for reassuring cuddles as they settle to sleep. Older children talk confidently to staff about what they are doing as they make pretend pizzas with play dough. Staff promote social development.

Therefore, children learn to get along together and be kind and helpful.The manager has begun work to address the weaknesses in the quality of education, for example by making improvements to the learning environment. However, the manager undertakes too many roles for her to be able to have effective oversight.

This means that care routines and play for the youngest children do not meet their developmental needs. For instance, babies are expected to sit at tables for extended periods of time and play with the same resources as older children.

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

The newly appointed manager has an ambitious vision for the curriculum.

She knows what she wants children to learn. However, she has not ensured that staff understand what children need to learn and when. As a result, learning activities lack timely purpose.

Despite this, children engage in their play happily. For example, they show enjoyment in building towers with wooden blocks and making marks in glitter with paintbrushes.Some staff interact positively with children.

For example, they promote children's independence skills such as learning to clean their faces after meals. This enables children to learn some of the intended curriculum for their personal development. Nonetheless, the provider has not ensured new and less experienced staff have received the training and support they need to help them develop their interactions.

This means that children are not consistently learning the self-help skills they need.Children's behaviour is generally positive. Staff expectations for behaviour are high.

Children are learning to be courteous because staff explain to them that they should be helpful and thank others. For example, children readily say 'thank you' to their friend when they hand out the plates and respond quickly to requests to take their feet off the table.The provider has not ensured that children's progress is assessed frequently enough.

Consequently, staff plan activities that do not meet individual children's needs because they are too easy or difficult. This means children do not make the progress of which they are capable.The manager ensures books are shared with children frequently.

However, her work to improve the quality of sharing books is just beginning. Staff read to children with little expression. They hold the book the wrong way up and out of view.

This means children do not benefit from seeing the pictures or words. As a result, after a positive attitude to the activity, children become bored and do not master the intended communication skills quickly.Staff feel well supported by the new manager after a period of uncertainty.

The manager provides supervision and staff meetings. This means that staff can share concerns they may have and talk about their job roles. However, supervisions are not focused precisely enough on improving overall staff performance.

Parents and/or carers state that their children enjoy coming to nursery. They say that the daily feedback provided by staff means they feel informed about their child's day-to-day care. However, the manager and the provider do not ensure that the progress checks for children aged two years are shared with parents.

Therefore, parents do not know how well their child is progressing across the areas of learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager understands her role and responsibility to safeguard children.

Staff have attended relevant training to help them identify any signs or symptoms that may mean a child is at risk of harm. Staff know the procedures they must follow if they have concerns about a child, or the behaviour of another adult. The manager ensures the staff that work with children are suitable to do so.

Staff, including the cook, know about children's allergy and dietary requirements. They take appropriate action to ensure children consume only food and drink that is safe for them to do so. For instance, food is clearly labelled and children are seated separately when eating to minimise the risk of contamination with allergens.

This helps to ensure children are kept safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date implement an enjoyable and challenging curriculum that meets the needs of all children who attend 25/10/2023 improve staff deployment to ensure it meets the needs of children and provides consistent caregiving and learning opportunities 25/10/2023 improve effectiveness of assessment processes to ensure staff can monitor children's progress and identify what children need to learn next 25/10/2023 ensure the progress checks for children aged two years are shared with parents and/or carers so that they know what their child's next steps in learning are.25/10/2023 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: provide staff with effective professional development to raise the quality of their performance and, specifically, their interactions with children.