Building Blocks Nurseries Pinchbeck

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to attend this welcoming nursery and are excited to play with the wide variety of learning experiences staff provide. They seek comfort and cuddles from staff when needed and show they feel reassured by the staff's warmth and kindness. Children are encouraged to join in conversations from a young age and learn to listen to others. Babies babble in response to staff interactions as they enjoy exploring musical instruments. They try to copy the new words they hear, such as 'shake, shake'. Children follow staff's instructions to move their bodies to sounds, including stretching. This helps them develop their ability to crawl and stand. Children are confident and enjoy sharing ideas and knowledge with their friends. They rapidly develop their imaginations and giggle with staff as they pretend to be different characters and cook food in the play kitchen. One child offers other children some cake to help 'cool down' their mouths after eating chillies, which prompts another child to mix some ice cream. Children happily invite others into their play. They receive the support they need from staff to communicate effectively with their friends when wanting to share resources and talk about how they are feeling.

Staff encourage children to try things for themselves and develop their perseverance. They praise and encourage children as they use their hand-eye coordination to dress themselves in different outfits and do up a variety of buttons and zips. Children in the toddler room are keen to share how proud they are of their increasing independence, exclaiming, 'Look, I washed my own hands!'

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

• The staff know their key children well. They place great emphasis on getting to know their personalities, families and interests. Staff play alongside children, assessing what they know and can do and use this information to plan what they need to learn next. They adapt activities to best support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Children are keen to join activities the staff plan to help to develop their concentration. Younger children enjoy learning about different animals and the sounds they make. Staff encourage children to compare different sizes, colours, and patterns and to use new vocabulary to help share their observations, such as a zebra looking like 'a stripy horse'. However, some staff do not fully understand the nursery's curriculum. They focus their support on what they want children to learn from an activity rather than implementing learning as identified in the curriculum.
• Staff recognise the importance of supporting children's ability to communicate. They model longer sentences for toddlers to hear and give them time to think before responding to more complex questions. Babies attempt to copy the repeated keywords and phrases they hear from some staff. For example, they have 'two ears'. However, staff interactions are not always consistent. Some staff do not support children in making the most progress they are capable of as they use limiting questions or do not make the most of opportunities to engage children in conversation.
• Staff ensure behaviour expectations and boundaries are clear and consistent for the children. They praise children for being kind and respectful when responding to one another. Staff show them from a very young age how to share toys fairly and to put things away when they have finished playing. They encourage children to use good manners, such as saying 'thank you' as they give them their home-cooked, healthy lunch. Staff support children to use cutlery and remain seated while eating. They provide a homely feel to children's mealtimes.
• Leaders have a clear ethos and vision for how they want staff to support children to learn within the nursery. They identify potential areas for improvement and make adaptions swiftly, including to the environment and the curriculum. The nursery has only been operating for a few months, and some processes, training and support provided for staff are not yet fully embedded. Therefore, these processes have not yet had time to fully impact staff practice. However, leaders provide ongoing supervision, which helps to identify the individual support staff need to help them develop their skills and knowledge. Leaders have arranged and started to provide relevant professional development.
• Parents and carers are very happy and complimentary about the nursery and the staff. They are happy with the communication they receive from staff about their child's day and the progress they are making in their learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's knowledge and understanding of the curriculum to help them consistently follow it when supporting children's progress
• strengthen staff skills and knowledge to help them develop consistently high-quality interactions with children.