Bearnecessities Wrap Around Care @ Abraham Moss

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are kind and caring in this setting. They build affectionate bonds with the children, who thoroughly enjoy attending this welcoming setting. Staff know the children well and are attentive to their needs. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Children settle well; they are comfortable and at ease. Children explore the environment with confidence and make choices about their play.

The nursery is highly inclusive and welcomes children from diverse backgrounds. Staff ensure that resources and displays represent a variety of cultures and communities. Consequently, children develop their understanding of different people and ways of life. Staff find out about children's experiences at home and ensure that these are included in the curriculum. For example, children celebrate religious and cultural events together. This helps all children to value their uniqueness.

Staff are good role models and have high expectations for children's behaviour. They teach children to play cooperatively together and learn to share and take turns. Children display a positive attitude towards their learning. For instance, children concentrate as they use their fine motor skills to pick up small objects from the sensory tray. They take turns and applaud themselves when they have mastered it.

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

• Staff develop children's communication skills well. They use children's favourite stories to broaden their growing vocabulary. Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff use simple sentences, flashcards and gestures to support children's understanding. Parents share words from their home language, and staff use these well to help children understand. This helps all children to achieve a good understanding of English and develops their speech over time.
• Staff organise routines and activities to respond to the children's needs. This helps children to have opportunities to be curious and inquisitive as they play, both indoors and outdoors. However, on occasion, during some parts of the routines, staff do not consistently organise activities in a way that sparks children's interests. This means that some children are occasionally distracted and do not remain highly engaged in their learning.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported to make good progress. Staff are very quick to identify where there are gaps in children's development. They work closely with parents and the nursery's special educational needs coordinator, as well as outside agencies. This ensures that appropriate targets are in place to help close gaps in children's learning quickly.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. The management team and staff encourage their engagement in their child's learning. For example, they invite parents to join stay-and-play sessions and regularly review their child's progress with them. Parents speak highly of the nursery and say they are extremely happy with their children's progress.
• Staff have a detailed knowledge and understanding of each child's progress and, overall, use this information well to plan for children's learning. However, at times, staff do not use this information to plan learning experiences for children that directly reflect their individual learning needs. This means that the curriculum is not always precisely targeted to build on what children already know and can do.
• Staff prepare varied and nutritious snacks and meals for the children. They support children with how to carry out some manageable tasks for themselves. For instance, at snack time, the children choose and peel their own fruit; they pour their own drinks and understand how to clear away. This helps to extend children's independence and skills in preparation for school.
• Children follow effective behaviour expectations. Staff model using manners, and children repeat these throughout different routines during the day. They show respect to staff and their peers and show an understanding of how their behaviour affects others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of routines and activities, particularly for the older children, to sustain their interests and help them become more highly engaged in their learning
• help staff to use their knowledge of each child's targets to plan learning experiences that precisely reflect children's individual development needs.