Allsorts Brackenbury

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in the warm and nurturing environment of the nursery. They have good opportunities to develop many skills as they follow their interests and share warm, and close relationships with staff.

Managers and staff have high expectations of all children and are committed to helping them make the best possible progress. They have recently reorganised the learning environment so that children can choose more freely to play outside if they want to. This has had a positive impact on children's well-being, with more opportunities for them to develop self-confidence, independence, and self-esteem.

Children are enthusiastic and explore with curiosity and interest. They are confident and behave well. Children learn to use good manners from an early age and share resources well.

During the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the setting remained open and joined with their other settings to provide care for most children. Throughout this time, and since the setting has fully reopened to all children, staff have ensured a good two-way flow of communication with parents. This has helped children and families maintain good links with the nursery. Although parents do not currently come into the nursery, staff ensure that they share information daily with parents at drop-off and collection. Parents can also access additional information online and feel fully involved in their children's learning.

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

• Managers and staff get to know the children well. Staff caring for babies liaise closely with parents, which helps them to follow babies' routines. As a result, babies are very settled and feel secure. Staff find out about what older children already know and can do, using their observations of children's development successfully to help them achieve their next steps in learning.
• The manager, who is also the special educational needs coordinator, is committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive the very best possible support at the earliest opportunity. She works closely with staff and external agencies to implement accurate and effective plans. Staff have a clear understanding of the importance of good partnership working and the positive impact this has on children's progress and future learning.
• Toddlers and younger children thoroughly enjoy water play. Staff support children's communication and language skills effectively and encourage children's imagination well. For example, staff name the lobster and crab as children explore the sea life creatures. Staff count the legs on the starfish and introduce new words, such as suckers to extend children's vocabulary.
• Parents are very complimentary about the staff. They feel very well supported and comment positively about their happy children.
• Children's behaviour is good. They help to tidy away the toys enthusiastically. They listen carefully and follow instructions well as they select a mat to sit on to listen to a story. Most children engage in the activity, joining in with familiar phrases from the story and talk about the characters. However, staff do not consistently deploy themselves effectively at large group times to support those children who find it more difficult to concentrate.
• Children develop good independence skills in managing their personal care. Older children use the bathroom independently and understand the importance of good hand washing. Children learn a wide range of skills, which prepares them well for school.
• Managers and staff use reflection effectively to identify areas for improvement. Managers have reassessed areas of the nursery to further minimise hazards and improve safety. For example, they have placed soft matting on top of the carpet area in the toddler room to provide a softer landing area, should a child fall over.
• Older children enjoy working together to build towers from bricks. Staff support children well, overall, as they count the bricks and use words, such as 'big and tall' to describe what the children are doing. However, staff miss opportunities to encourage the children to compare sizes of the towers they build. They do not encourage the children to begin to make simple calculations to extend their learning further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that staff deploy themselves effectively at large group times to encourage all children to fully participate
• develop further strategies to encourage children to compare groups of objects and begin to make simple calculations.