Annabelle's

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome from friendly staff, and happily wave goodbye to their parents as they enter the nursery. They make lovely friendships and have excellent social skills. For example, children tell visitors how they were a 'bit nervous' at first, before giving them cuddles and asking them their names. Children have the social skills they need to support positive relationships.

Babies have strong bonds with staff and they receive responsive support. For instance, they clap their hands with joy and babble excitedly as they roll a ball back and forth with staff. Babies have caring relationships and feel safe and secure.

Children behave well and respond quickly to staff. Staff constantly remind children to be kind and help them to take turns. This helps children to understand the high expectations and behaviour rules. For example, children happily give their friends some play dough when they do not have any. They are learning to help others and be kind.

Children have excellent communication skills and hold lovely conversations with staff. They articulate what they know and can do with ease. For example, children have engaging conversations about how they cannot eat crocodiles. They have a wide vocabulary, and this helps them to share their thoughts with others.

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

• Staff provide many opportunities for children to learn about the world around them. The nursery focuses on outdoor learning, and leaders say that this is a strong focus for their curriculum. As a result, children have lots of opportunities to learn outside daily. For example, younger children happily toddle down to see the chickens, and they talk about what they need to care for them. Children have lovely experiences to help them to build on what they know.
• The provider has lovely ways to help support children's emotional development. For instance, they give each new child a 'care bear', which they can use to comfort them in the day. This helps children to feel safe and secure and support the transition between home and nursery. Older children are extremely capable of talking about their feelings. Staff support children by naming feelings such as 'sad', and asking the children to explain why they feel this way. Children have good emotional literacy skills that they need to help them with future learning.
• Staff consistently offer children exciting and engaging activities to ignite wonder and curiosity. As a result, children have extremely positive attitudes to play and learning. For example, they delight in trying noodles, mango and soy sauce. Children smile and chat excitedly about how it feels 'squishy' and 'squidgy'. They eagerly explore the new experience and learn new concepts.
• Staff are passionate about providing opportunities to learn about cultural celebrations, such as the Chinese New Year. This helps children to learn new ideas and experience new things that they may not have access to in their daily life. However, staff do not always support children to explore their own cultures and backgrounds. This does not help children to learn about their uniqueness.
• Staff know the children well and children make good progress in their development, particularly the most vulnerable children. For instance, staff understand the importance of supporting children's social skills. They support children by playing alongside them and modelling how to play with friends. This helps children to learn how to play collaboratively and enjoy sharing their ideas with others.
• Staff have built positive parent partnerships. Parents say that they 'feel listened to', and praise the staff for their friendly and accommodating nature. Leaders are passionate about building good communication with parents. They have introduced an information 'pod' in the garden, where parents can visit and gather information. However, parents are not as well informed about what their child is learning or their next steps in development. This means parents are not able to support children's home learning.
• Staff receive regular feedback on their practice. They have regular meetings with managers to discuss what is working well and any areas for improvement. For example, recent training on healthy eating at the setting has allowed staff to reflect on how they can support children's healthy choices. As a result, staff now include children in preparing their snacks at mealtimes. Staff appreciate the support they receive from leaders and say that they care for the staff's well-being. For instance, they enjoy the 'praise pig', where they share positive praise at team meetings.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase the ways in which children can understand their own cultures and backgrounds and celebrate their unique qualities
• make better use of the information already supplied to parents, to make children's next steps clearer so that learning can continue at home.