Brookfields Hilton

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted with smiles by friendly and welcoming staff. Staff get to know the children well. They build trusting bonds with the children, helping children feel secure, confident and ready to engage in learning.

Staff arrange the play environment to consider the current learning needs of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This inclusive environment supports all children to be physically active. For instance, babies excitedly join their peers in water play, where they experiment with filling and pouring containers. Staff help toddlers to balance on tyres, jumping from one to another, holding their arms wide to balance. Older children confidently use their whole bodies to climb equipment and use tools to dig in the garden. Children are well supported by attentive staff that offer them regular praise and encouragement, which helps to boost their self-esteem.

Children begin to understand the expectations for behaviour set by the staff. They follow instructions well, share with their friends and take turns. Staff are quick to divert any unwanted behaviours and, overall, children's behaviour is good. Staff support children to manage their emotions by discussing feelings and modelling calm responses. They use visual aids alongside a mirror to help children understand their own emotions. As a result, children cooperate well with each other and play harmoniously.

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

• Leaders have designed a curriculum that builds on what children know and can do, helping to prepare them for their next stage in learning. There is a clear focus on developing independence. Staff encourage and support children effectively to take care of their personal needs. For example, children hang their belongings on their named peg and manage their personal hygiene. Staff recognise the importance of these key skills to support children's eventual transition to school.
• Children are eager to join in with adult-led activities, such as cake baking. However, staff sometimes lack a clear learning intent, leading to disorganised and hurried sessions. This means that learning can sometimes be incidental rather than purposeful, and children do not fully benefit from all adult-led learning.
• Staff promote healthy habits among children, engaging them in discussions about healthy eating and oral hygiene. Children are offered a range of nutritious foods during snack and lunch that are freshly prepared on site. Overall, mealtimes are a sociable and positive experience. However, older children's behaviour during mealtimes is not always well supported. For example, children are not reminded to use cutlery while eating and noise levels can become too high. This leads to mealtimes being loud and occasionally disruptive.
• Overall, support for communication and language is good. Staff promote early language development by reading stories, singing songs and engaging in conversation with children. However, on occasion staff use informal language, such as 'din dins' for dinner or 'ta' for thank you. Furthermore, staff do not maximise opportunities to extend vocabulary during play. As a result, not all children make the best possible progress in their language development.
• Children enjoy making marks in a range of ways with various materials. For example, they use pencils and crayons on paper and enjoy using chalk on a board. Some children choose to use play dough to roll, squeeze and cut. These experiences help them to develop strength in their hands in readiness for writing.
• Staff support children with SEND consistently. Those responsible for SEND are on hand to guide staff and help children. Staff work together with parents and the relevant professionals to ensure that support is provided in a timely manner. Children who require more support have targeted support plans in place.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff provide daily updates on children's well-being and progress. Parents explain that they feel involved and fully informed about their children's learning and progress. They appreciate the good communication and talk of how staff give them ideas for home learning. This enables consistency in children's learning and development.
• Leaders support staff to continually improve their practice with regular supervision sessions, observations and coaching. They have identified where there are gaps in knowledge and have linked this to new training opportunities. This supports staff in enhancing their delivery of an effective curriculum.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff teaching to focus more precisely on planned learning intentions to help older children make progress in their learning
• develop strategies to consistently help older children to understand behaviour expectations at mealtimes
• ensure that staff consistently model rich language and extend vocabulary for all age groups to further strengthen support for communication and language development.