Early Days Nursery

Early Days Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): EY491545 Address: 330 Weston Road, Stoke On Trent, ST3 6EZ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 29/06/2015 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Early Days (Staffordshire) Limited

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Children's welfare and wellbeing are promoted highly effectively across the setting. Leadership is purposeful and assured. This ensures staff create emotionally secure, safe and nurturing environments. Leaders provide precise guidance on safe sleep, supervision, intimate care and responding to children's emotional cues. Leaders and staff ensure a nurturing environment that supports children to build positive relationships and form secure attachments with the adults caring for them.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Children experience warm and sensitive care that enables them to feel safe, settled and ready to learn. Staff respond promptly to children's needs. They offer comfort with sensitivity and use predictable routines that reduce anxiety and build emotional security. Babies form close attachments through close and responsive interactions. Older children learn to express their feelings, manage emotions and develop independence within familiar routines. Staff carry out daily care practices, including mealtimes, nappy changing and transitions, with dignity, respect and professionalism. Staff sit with children at lunch and snack times to ensure their safety and to support routines. All children, including babies, have regular opportunities for developing their independence skills. They confidently feed themselves and access drinking water when they want it.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Inclusive approaches to welfare and wellbeing are consistently embedded. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children facing additional barriers receive personalised support that helps them regulate, participate and thrive. Staff use co- regulation, sensory strategies and well-judged adaptations to ensure every child feels valued, understood and safe. As a result, children experience high-quality care that nurtures their wellbeing and supports their wider development. Parents and carers report very positively about the care and education their children receive, including for children with SEND.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Children experience highly effective inclusive practice that ensures their needs are identified promptly and met with precision. Staff use systematic observation, close partnership with families and well-coordinated multi-agency information to pinpoint children's emerging needs at the earliest stage. As a result, children encounter fewer barriers to learning because staff adapt routines, environments and interactions. This ensures every child can participate successfully and sustain engagement.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Disadvantaged children achieve very well. They benefit from targeted interactions, experiences rich in language and consistent emotional support. This helps to strengthen their communication, confidence and independence. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make clear and sustained progress from their starting points. Staff implement personalised strategies that address regulation, sensory needs and communication. This enables these children to take part in group routines, explore new experiences and form secure relationships. Children with SEND, as well as those from families in difficult situations, succeed alongside their friends.

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Expected standard

Staff safeguard children known, or previously known, to children's social care effectively. These children experience stable attachments, predictable routines and vigilant oversight that promote emotional security and readiness to learn. Children who face additional barriers, such as speech and language delay, anxiety or limited prior experiences, receive very effective support. For example, staff use visual scaffolds, provide support to regulate children's feelings and carefully structured opportunities to reduce their frustration and build resilience.

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Achievement Expected standard

Typically, children achieve well across all areas of learning and development. They make sustained and age-appropriate progress because staff understand their starting points. Children benefit from experiences that deliberately build their knowledge, skills and confidence.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children develop a secure sense of belonging through receptive care and consistent routines. They access a broad range of learning opportunities. Children become confident learners who are well prepared for transitions within the nursery and into school. They develop essential early skills in communication, language, physical development, independence and regulate their emotions. This enables children to participate fully in daily routines and learning.

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Achievement Expected standard

In the main, children gain the foundational knowledge needed for future success. Babies explore sensory materials, practise early communication and develop emerging physical control. Toddlers extend their vocabularies, curiosity and problem-solving through well- matched experiences. Pre-school children strengthen early literacy, mathematical awareness and self-help skills that prepare them for more formal learning. By the time they move on to the next stage of education, children demonstrate the competencies required to continue learning confidently and successfully.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Strategic leadership ensures staff implement calm and predictable environments where children feel secure and ready to learn. Leaders provide clear and consistent guidance on modelling positive behaviour. They support children's emotions and establish routines that help children to anticipate what happens next. This coherent approach enables staff to respond promptly and sensitively to children's cues. This helps to reduce children's anxiety and strengthens their engagement.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Positive relationships underpin children's behaviour. Children show trust in staff. They seek comfort confidently and demonstrate increasing independence within familiar routines. Warm and sensitive interactions support children to develop emotional vocabulary, resilience and the confidence to explore. Children display positive attitudes to learning. However, on occasion, staff do not consider how noise levels in the pre-school room during focused learning activities and routines affect children's learning. At times, this has an impact on children's fullest attention and engagement.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Staff model and coach children's early social skills effectively. Children learn to take turns, share resources and regulate their emotions. Staff provide consistent routines and visual supports to support children. Leaders monitor children's attendance with rigour. Staff work closely with families to promote regular attendance. They address emerging concerns, ensuring children benefit from continuity and secure attachments.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Inclusive practice is consistently embedded. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, disadvantaged children and children facing additional barriers receive personalised support that enables their full participation. Staff make adaptations to routines, environments and interactions to help children remain settled, regulated and ready to learn. As a result, children experience a safe and nurturing environment where they develop positive behaviour and secure foundations for their future learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Curriculum and teaching are securely embedded. Leaders provide clear direction for the implementation of the curriculum implementation. They ensure staff understand what children need to learn and why. The curriculum design is coherent and developmentally appropriate. It prioritises children's communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development and independence, while ensuring children access meaningful experiences across all areas of learning. Staff's planning identifies the vocabulary, concepts and skills children need to gain. This supports progression from babies through to the pre-school room. There is a positive focus on promoting children's early literacy skills, with books and songs being integral to the day. Staff promote children's physical development well. For instance, children have opportunities to climb, balance and run freely outside.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teaching is warm, purposeful and rooted in secure knowledge of early childhood development. Staff scaffold learning and create calm environments that help children sustain attention and build confidence. Interactions are responsive and intentional. Staff support children to explore, problem-solve and develop their early learning skills. These include listening and responding to others, following simple instructions, managing their feelings with adult support, taking turns and sharing resources and strengthening hand control through early mark-making. However, during some planned activities, children sometimes encounter activities that are narrower in scope when staff rely on familiar themes. This means they do not always access the full breadth of learning intended for them.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Staff adapt routines and activities so that barriers to children's learning are reduced. They provide personalised strategies, targeted support and a consistent approach, enabling all children to make steady progress.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leadership and governance are effective. Leaders provide clear and purposeful direction. They ensure children's safety, wellbeing and learning remain central to decision-making. Leaders articulate a coherent vision for high-quality early education. Well-established routines, safeguarding systems and curriculum priorities contribute to children feeling secure and making steady progress.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders maintain a secure understanding of their statutory responsibilities, monitor safeguarding practice with rigour and ensure full compliance with safer recruitment, supervision and health and safety requirements. They provide appropriate challenge and support.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders manage staff's wellbeing and workload effectively. Leaders foster a positive team culture where staff feel valued, listened to and professionally supported. They balance staff's workload through clear routines, shared responsibilities and effective communication. Staff report high morale and confidence in leaders' guidance.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

In general, leaders promote professional learning well. They ensure staff have access to relevant training in safeguarding, behaviour support, curriculum delivery and early childhood development. Coaching, modelling and supervision sessions help staff to embed new learning and strengthen their practice across rooms. Further targeted support for staff to embed broader intentions during adult-led activities would strengthen the learning for children.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Parental and community engagement is purposeful and contributes positively to children's development. Leaders and staff build trusting and respectful relationships with families. They communicate with clarity, ensuring parents and carers understand how their children are progressing and how to support learning at home. Staff work sensitively with parents who may be hesitant to engage, reducing barriers and strengthening the partnership. Collaboration with external professionals is well coordinated and ensures children receive consistent and timely support. As a result, families feel included, informed and confident. This also helps children to benefit from coherent, joined-up care and education.

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Compulsory Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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Voluntary Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children benefit from a broad and increasingly ambitious curriculum that is responsive to their needs. The curriculum builds securely on what children already know and can do. Well- sequenced activities provide meaningful opportunities for children to develop knowledge, vocabulary and skills across all areas of learning. Children demonstrate a love of books. They sit individually or share stories in small groups in a cosy book shed in the garden. They recall previous learning and make predictions as to what will happen next.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Staff demonstrate an understanding of the curriculum and use purposeful planning to promote clear progression. Warm and responsive interactions and thoughtfully organised environments help children to achieve well, develop confidence and independence. Children feel a deep sense of belonging. They demonstrate positive behaviour and show emerging social awareness as they play alongside one another. Children engage calmly in shared spaces. They respond appropriately to familiar routines and follow staff's guidance with increasing independence.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Planned experiences reflect children's interests, backgrounds and individual needs. This ensures children feel valued and understood. Targeted support and inclusive teaching reduce barriers to children's learning. This enables children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are disadvantaged, to participate fully and make sustained progress. The curriculum is coherently designed to help every child flourish, whatever their starting point or level of need.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children demonstrate that they feel safe and emotionally secure within the setting. They separate from their parents and carers with confidence, settle quickly into familiar routines and move calmly between activities. Children show trust in staff, seeking comfort, guidance or support when needed. They respond positively to the consistent and predictable boundaries that staff provide. Staff help children to develop social skills as they praise children for sitting at mealtimes. Children smile in response and give eye contact. This helps

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registration date: 29/06/2015 to encourage children's listening and attention skills. Staff teach children simple social phrases. Children respond with non-verbal gestures to indicate their needs or use short phrases such as, 'Yes, please'.

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Address:

Leaders recognise the importance of attendance and take a proactive approach to ensuring children attend regularly. They monitor patterns closely, identify concerns swiftly and work constructively with families to remove barriers that may affect children's attendance.

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Next steps

Leaders should strengthen staff's understanding of the curriculum, so that planned activities reflect the full breadth of learning and avoid over-reliance on familiar themes. Leaders should ensure children can sustain attention, remain engaged and benefit fully from teaching and interactions, such as by reviewing and managing noise levels in the pre-school room during focused learning activities.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, the special educational needs coordinator, parents and carers and children during the inspection.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage. Registered person: Early Days (Staffordshire) Limited

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About this inspection

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:00 - 18:00

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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