Brook Babes Little Learners

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and keen to meet their friends and staff. They are confident and quick to investigate the exciting resources and activities staff prepare. Older children set themselves challenges in the construction corner, building motorways with bridges. Younger children beam as they find toy animals hidden in hay. They bounce up and down and have fun attempting to 'moo' and 'roar' like the animals. Babies snuggle into staff as they look at a book together. This positive environment means all children enjoy their nursery sessions.

Children behave well and are kind and considerate. Staff are skilful at helping children to learn what is expected of them. They encourage children to talk about their feelings, which helps them feel valued and respected. Staff gently explain the consequences of any negative behaviour. They encourage children to take turns with the resources and include their friends in their play. Staff help children learn to listen to adults as they develop children's awareness of risk and safety ready for school. This means children follow the nursery routines well. For instance, children routinely join staff in a lively clapping song, which gives them a 10-minute warning before tidy-up time for lunch. This helps children prepare for the next activity in a calm and happy atmosphere.

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

• Leaders plan and organise the curriculum well. They put children's emotional well-being and communication and listening skills at the heart of everything they do. The manager is skilled at helping staff to fully understand how to put this into practice and sequence children's learning effectively.
• Staff have a very effective key-person system. They have a detailed knowledge of the children and their families. This helps children and babies feel safe and know their needs will be met. Staff work closely with parents when children start, and when they transition between rooms. This helps build secure relationships with their new key person.
• Parents share how happy they are with the progress their children are making. They express how they value the communication they receive. However, some parents say they would find it beneficial to receive even more ideas on how they can help their children learn at home.
• Staff build strong links with local schools and professionals. They strive to ensure that children have a positive experience as they move on to school, for example by inviting teachers in and arranging visits to the schools.
• Staff work well with families to support those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Additional funding the nursery receives is effectively spent to ensure it has the biggest impact on children's learning and development.
• Children develop a very good use of language and communication skills. Staff constantly hold conversations with children. They provide ongoing commentary for younger children and introduce new vocabulary for older children. Staff routinely model language and listening skills. They encourage children to talk about what will happen next, for example, while reading a familiar story. This helps children to be confident to speak out and know they will be heard.
• Overall, staff's interactions with children are strong. They encourage children to follow their interests and engage them well in play. Staff challenge children's thinking to help them develop their own ideas. However, occasionally, pre-school children who are eager to learn about letters and the sounds they make are not consistently getting the high-quality interactions and challenge they need. This is because not all staff follow agreed approaches to teaching letters and sounds. This means that children sometimes do not build well on the literacy skills they already have.
• Children enjoy healthy snacks and plenty of exercise. Staff consistently encourage children's understanding of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. However, sometimes during mealtimes, babies and younger children sit and wait for long periods until all children have washed their hands and the nutritious food has been delivered. Consequently, despite staff's best efforts to sing with them, children are bored and lose valuable time to learn.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve the strong relationship with parents and carers to share even more ideas with them to help continue children's learning at home
• support all staff to follow agreed approaches, so practice is consistent when helping pre-school children to learn about letters and sounds
• consider the impact of the times younger children have to sit and wait, so that valuable learning time is not wasted.