Back to the Garden Childcare Lymm

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this bright and well-organised setting. They build positive relationships with staff, who are calm and nurturing. Staff have high expectations for children's progress and work tirelessly to meet their individual needs. The key-person system is embedded well. This helps staff to get to know children well and support them to understand their emotions. These bonds help children to feel safe and secure.

Leaders have planned an ambitious curriculum, which aims to gradually build on children's skills as they move from one room to the next. Staff weave learning opportunities into the daily routines in all rooms. This helps to ensure that children of all ages embed their skills across all areas of learning. Staff have high ambitions for children's progress and instil values of kindness and respect. Children speak and listen politely to one another as they play and interact. They forge strong friendships and are eager to show visitors what they can do.

Children relish their time in the art room, where they create a model volcano linked to a recent holiday to Italy. Staff successfully extend children's learning by adding vocabulary, such as 'plume, eruption' and 'volcanic ash'. Children delight in recalling that Pompeii is the city that was 'knocked down by lava'. Staff give an abundance of praise for the children's recollections. Children develop highly positive attitudes to their learning.

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

• Leaders are reflective and ambitious. They strive to provide a high standard of care and education for children in the local community. Leaders act with integrity when using the funding children receive to ensure it best meets their individual needs. They are passionate and committed to their roles and driven to make continuous improvements.
• Leaders forge strong relationships with parents and carers and external professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff provide tailored support and detailed individual plans for children with SEND. This collaborative approach helps children with SEND to make good progress.
• Staff support children to understand their emotions and use a range of strategies to help children to solve minor conflicts. For instance, they read a story about a monster, and link this with puppets and visuals for children to express how they feel. This helps children to gain an understanding of their actions and learn to respect each other's feelings.
• Hygiene processes are highly effective. The setting is meticulously clean and well organised. Children demonstrate good self-care and independence. Staff offer children consistent reminders for handwashing before meals and after playing outside.
• Opportunities for outdoor play are plentiful. Children demonstrate good physical dexterity as they navigate the secure and purposeful outdoor area, building their large-muscle skills as they climb and balance. Staff teach children to take appropriate risks and challenges as they play. This builds children's confidence and resilience, and gives them a sense of achievement when they succeed.
• All staff are nurturing and receptive to children's needs. However, they do not consistently use effective body language and facial expressions to fully engage the younger children in quality interactions. Furthermore, they do not always understand the reasons why they are carrying out certain activities. This does not help children to develop their communication and conversational skills or support them to make progress across all areas of learning.
• Leaders show genuine care and pride in their roles and are accurate in their self-evaluations of the setting. A regular programme of supervision sessions and targeted training aims to enhance the quality of education provided. Leaders recognise more work is needed to enhance the quality of practice further. They have planned a programme of online and in-person training to cascade their vision to the team. Staff comment on the support they receive and appreciate the open-door policy if they have any concerns.
• Parent partnerships are highly effective. The two-way flow of information between home and the setting is strengthened using an app, as well as daily feedback from the staff. Parents speak highly of the setting. They comment on the thorough settling-in processes and the regular support and communication they receive. This helps to meet children's and their families' needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to use more effective body language in order to strengthen their interactions with children
• provide further training to ensure that all staff understand the curriculum and know how to implement it consistently.