Alphabet Lanes Nursery & Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are safe and happy in this friendly and welcoming nursery. They have secure attachments with staff, who are caring, nurturing and kind. Children who are new settle quickly and form good friendships with their peers. Staff use their understanding of children's interests and learning needs well to plan and deliver an ambitious curriculum. For example, children eagerly join in with the wide range of activities and resources on offer. They are creative and enjoy exploring materials, such as sand. Children test out their own thoughts and ideas as they play. For instance, they explore moulding the sand in different ways and investigate construction materials, which they use to build a range of structures. All children make good progress in their learning and development.

Children are well behaved and polite. They know what is expected of them and follow routines well. Staff regularly praise children's efforts and achievements. This helps to raise their self-esteem and develop their confidence to try new experiences. All children learn to manage their self-care needs, which older children confidently master. For instance, they competently dress themselves for outdoor play. Children make independent choices and decisions as they play. They play well together, sharing toys and resources.

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

• All staff show enthusiasm and commitment to their role. They are attentive and interact very well with children. This high-quality interaction promotes children's play and learning effectively.
• Children develop useful skills for the future, including the transition to school. They learn how to make marks and to identify their name on their coat peg, and they consistently join in with conversations with staff and their peers. Staff plan exciting activities, which children thoroughly enjoy. For example, they delight in jumping and hopping into hoops.
• Staff support children's communication and language well. They sing nursery rhymes with the children, ask questions and allow time for children to respond. Staff listen to the children and use lots of repetition to support their speaking. They repeat words that children do not pronounce clearly so they can hear them correctly. Staff take the time to get to know some words in children's home language and use these to aid communication. Older children listen to stories. However, at times, staff read very quickly. This does not support children who are learning to speak English as an additional language (EAL) effectively. On these occasions, staff do not ensure that children hear the words being read or have a system in place to support their understanding. As such, some children become disengaged and stop listening.
• Staff learn about the festivals children celebrate at home and plan activities around these themes. This allows children to learn about each other's customs and values. Staff celebrate each child and are respectful. They provide opportunities for children to understand the use of 'kind hands', which supports their behaviour.
• Staff make effective use of settling-in arrangements and build strong relationships with parents and children. They promote strong communication with parents and other professionals. This helps staff to understand the children and support them to meet each child's needs. Key persons share what the children are learning with their parents and advise how to help them at home. Parents highly praise the staff and manager for the good support provided. They comment that their children have 'made good progress since starting' at the nursery.
• Overall, staff promote children's health well. The environment is clean and suitable. Staff remind children to wash their hands before eating. Children have daily access to the outdoors, where they can exercise. However, staff do not ensure that parents are consistently supported to understand the importance of providing a healthy packed lunch for children.
• The manager ensures that staff are well supported through supervision and appraisal meetings. She works closely with the local authority and other training providers, who provide support and training to strengthen staff's knowledge and skills. However, the monitoring of staff practice is not fully embedded into the nursery to help staff improve the quality of teaching to the highest level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to consider the needs of all children during group times, such as story time, to further support children who are learning to speak EAL
• review information shared with parents about healthy eating to promote children's good health consistently
• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice to help promote consistently high-quality teaching.