Angels On The Park

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have time to settle in according to their individual needs. Each child chooses their own key person who gets to know them and their parents/carers well. This promotes warm responsive relationships that underpin children's personal, social and emotional development. The same approach is used when children move rooms to make sure the process is smooth. Children show that they feel safe and settled as they access resources confidently and play alongside and with their friends.

Children are happy and confident to join in a wide range of interesting learning experiences. Babies and children take part in different activities, which are tailored to their needs. For example, babies develop their understanding of the world by exploring different fruits and vegetables while exploring the foods found in the story of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Older children explore slime and construction materials based around their interest in building. Children enjoy taking part in dancing and singing activities. They move their bodies to music, and stamp and shake instruments along to familiar songs. Children are becoming independent and confident learners, energetically getting involved in a wide range of learning experiences, which support their readiness for the next stage in their learning.

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

• The management team has a clear understanding of the needs of the nursery. They have clear a vision and use robust staff induction and development opportunities to do so. Leaders have regular staff discussions to check in on staff's well-being and to make sure that staff have the knowledge and skills to keep up to date with the changing needs of the children they care for. The management team focused on children's attachments and emotional well-being, recognising the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's emotional development.
• The provider actively seeks out the views of parents. They welcome parents, giving them support and advice through regular information and workshops that are tailored to their needs. For example, they share information on paediatric first aid and how to address issues around children biting. Staff share good information with parents about their child's learning and development.
• Children develop language skills as they explore songs with staff members. They learn words such as 'squish' and 'pat' as they explore sand. However, staff sometimes tidy away resources before children have finished playing, which means that children are not always able to see their chosen activities through to their conclusion. Also, staff do not always manage times effectively when children are moving from one part of their routine to another. This means that children engage less well with their learning at these times.
• Children are kept safe. Staff carry out regular risk assessments and encourage children to look after their own personal care. They offer healthy and nutritious foods and children have a direct say on which foods they like. Staff share information with parents about the food their children eat.
• Staff know children's needs well. They are aware of any particular gaps in children's development, and support children's personal, social and emotional well-being with good intent. However, at times, staff who work with the older children do not closely match the intended learning of an experience to the needs of the children involved.
• Staff take into consideration the needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to ensure that they can participate fully. They actively engages with outside professionals to plan for children with SEND to ensure that they make the progress they are capable of.
• Staff understand what is expected of them and enjoy the opportunities for professional development. They have benefitted from recent training on how to interact with children in more meaningful ways. The provider offers staff opportunities to undertake further qualifications to the benefit of the children they care for.
• The management team recognises areas for development in the quality of teaching, including enabling staff to more closely link the learning needs for each child to the activities and experiences provided. While children make good progress across the nursery, this is not as rapid as possible for all children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to understand more closely the specific learning intentions of the experiences they provide, to shape experiences to individual children's needs and extend their learning further
• review the organisation of daily routines in place to enable children to follow their own ideas without interruption as far as possible.