Beechwood Childcare Limited, Southam

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Babies and very young children are cared for by staff who know them exceptionally well as individuals and meet their care and learning needs excellently. Staff observe children, assess their different stages of development and ensure children's learning continually builds on what they have already achieved. Children's emotional security is fully addressed by staff. Relationships between staff and children are superb. This helps the children to become confident learners and extremely well prepared for the move on to the setting's sister nursery at the age of around two years six months.

Following a short group time at the beginning of the morning session, children are extremely keen to choose activities in the stimulating learning environment created by staff. The choice on offer inspires the young children's natural curiosity. They are inquisitive and confidently explore and investigate the different textures and mark-making opportunities that are part of the activities available. The atmosphere in the nursery is extremely calm. Staff continually provide one-to-one care and support, such as for babies who are tired and for young children who are learning that some things are shared. Staff are highly successful in interpreting the wants and needs of babies through their non-verbal forms of communication. Two-year-old children can form short sentences when they communicate with staff.

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

• The manager, deputy and staff are passionate about ensuring the best possible outcomes for all children. Staff work as a team to ensure that they implement an ambitious curriculum that meets the needs of every child who attends. Staff's teaching practice is wholly successful in challenging children as individuals so that they make outstanding progress.
• Staff's recruitment and selection procedures are robust. The manager has very high expectations in order to ensure that staff joining the team are as dedicated to the children as current staff members.
• Parents share extremely positive views about the provision. They comment on the role staff have played in children's language development and different parents say: 'I feel blessed to have found such a lovely place for my son's early years,' and 'They always go the extra mile for my son.' A parent reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic and says, '...amazing during COVID and helped with transitioning into nursery'. Parents are very happy with the variety of activities, and one parent says, 'The staff are so imaginative with their messy play activities,' and another says, 'We love the focus on fun and play and encouragement for the development of individual personalities.'
• All children are happy and extremely well settled. Their emotional security is initially addressed well, for example a gradual settling-in procedure is agreed on with parents in accordance with their child's needs. While the bonds between each child and their key staff member are particularly strong, all staff have a thorough knowledge of every child's care and learning needs.
• Children make rapid progress in their communication and language development. Staff effectively put into practice the knowledge they have gained from training provided by the local authority. They model language clearly and adopt effective teaching strategies so that children quickly move on from saying single words to putting words together. Children are also supported to use some simple sign language.
• Children's good health is supported exceptionally well. They are physically active outside every day, and staff provide them with healthy snacks and meals. At lunchtime, children are invited to name and select the colour of the cutlery they would like to use. The mealtime is a calm, social occasion where children are supported to be independent.
• Children are developing a keen interest in certain stories. A favourite is about a bear. Staff expertly broaden children's interest in the story by providing linked activities for children's sensory exploration. On a large tray, they provide a copy of the book, small furry toy bears and small world toys, soil, a shallow, small tray containing water and flour as pretend snow. The young children explore the resources confidently and make marks in the 'snow' with small world figures' feet.
• Children lead their own learning and staff offer excellent support. Staff suggest that children create a bear's cave. Initially they enjoy painting, printing and gluing and sticking on a large cardboard box. Then one of the children decides to paint their feet. Other children decide to do the same, and staff immediately respond by placing large sheets of paper on the floor for the children to walk on to create footprints.