Banana Moon Colchester

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children build strong relationships with their key persons, who readily greet them on arrival. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Staff are caring and nurturing and respond to children's needs. Children seek them out when they need comfort, demonstrating these bonds. Children show kindness to their friends. They share well and play cooperatively with the toys and resources.

Staff have been successful in making changes to their approach to supporting children's behaviour. They have created spaces in the rooms for children to go to, away from busy areas to relax. Staff have developed a range of methods to begin to help children recognise and name their emotions. This has had a positive impact on the children. Staff help children to understand the routines of the day. They provide a timely reminder to children when it is nearly time to move to the next activity. This helps children to bring their play to a satisfactory end and prepares them for what comes next. As a result, children behave well and know what staff expect from them.

Children have daily opportunities to develop their physical skills. Babies learn to walk and move around as they use the low-level furniture to pull themselves up to a standing position. Older children explore the garden, climbing and balancing on tyres with support from staff.

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

• Leaders and staff have taken swift action to address the weaknesses raised at the last inspection. They have worked closely with the local authority and other professionals to improve the quality of their practice. The manager regularly observes staff and provides valuable feedback, highlighting their strengths and areas to develop. This means that staff continue to improve their knowledge and practice.
• Staff gather information about each child before they start at the nursery. They use this information as a starting point to plan children's next steps. Overall, children are making good progress. However, on occasions, the quality of teaching is not yet consistent in helping to build on what children already know and can do. For example, during some adult-led activities, staff do not focus on the learning priorities of individual children. This means that some children lose interest, move on and miss out on valuable learning opportunities.
• Children, including those who speak English as an additional language, are becoming confident communicators and readily chat with visitors. Staff are good role models. They use clear speech and repeat simple words and phrases to secure children's understanding. Staff working with younger children introduce songs naming the actions and sounds.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) uses her knowledge and experience to support children who need extra help. She shares her skills with the rest of the staff team to support their professional development to further help the children make good progress. The SENCo has introduced specific methods of teaching, such as picture communication cards, to support children's progress. As a result, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are consistently supported and make good progress.
• Leaders plan the organisation of mealtimes to support children's personal and social development. However, they do not take into consideration the emotional needs of younger children, who, at times, become overwhelmed by the busy environment. Furthermore, the layout during mealtimes limits the ability of older children to become more independent.
• Staff feel well supported by the management team. The additional support, guidance and training have boosted their confidence and supported their practice to raise the quality of education and care for children. For instance, staff in the baby room explain how this has made them consider more closely how to adapt activities to suit all children.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. They talk positively about their children's experiences and comment that their children have formed close bonds with staff. As a result, they feel that their children have settled quickly and are making good progress. The manager recognises the needs of the families. She has set up a children's clothes and food bank to ensure that families have access to essential supplies that they may need.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the quality of staff's teaching to consistently help build on what individual children know and can do to promote children's learning further
• refine the organisation of mealtimes to further support children's independence and personal, social and emotional development.