Building Blocks Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery is tranquil and welcoming. It is aesthetically pleasing and homely, with soft lighting and fabulous scents. All staff are highly responsive to children's needs. For example, they offer reassurance, encouraging smiles and cuddles, when needed. Furthermore, they chat to the children as they play alongside them. This helps children to relax and focus as they engage in new experiences. Staff successfully support children to follow the nursery rules. These rules help to keep children safe and encourage respect for others. Children are confident and behave well.

Staff provide children with stimulating activities that fully engage them and promote their development in all the areas of learning. Children have many opportunities to be creative, to develop their sensory skills and to explore a variety of textures and materials. For example, babies enjoy exploring the sand with their fingers. The two-year-old children concentrate as they use tools, such as rolling pins and scissors, to manipulate the dough. They add mint leaves and sprinkle ground cinnamon onto their dough to enhance their creations. The pre-school children make pretend soup. They add the chopped parsnips and onion to the water in the large tin bath and vigorously stir the mixture. During such times, staff support children to work towards the next steps in their learning.

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

• The management team continues to boost its own professional development. It is working towards a National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership. It frequently links with the local authority advisers. This helps the team to reflect on its practice and overcome any ongoing challenges to developing a high-quality provision.
• The management team regularly monitors and supports each member of staff's practice in a particular area of learning. This, along with regular individual support meetings, helps staff to improve the knowledge and skills they need to teach children effectively.
• Staff provide an exciting environment that is inspired by natural and recycled materials and incorporates children's interests. They engage in role play with the children. Staff act out different characters and situations based on the children's ideas. During such activities, staff use everyday real objects, such as clocks and telephones, to promote children's knowledge of numbers. They encourage children to sort objects according to size and colour. Children show high levels of curiosity, imagination and concentration across all the areas of learning.
• Staff use a screening programme to identify delays in children's use and understanding of language and to help them plan supportive interventions. They read lots of stories to the children. Staff plan post-reading activities that help children to fully understand and remember key concepts within the story. However, staff do not focus strongly enough on encouraging pre-school children to develop their understanding of letters and sounds.
• Staff provide a range of resources that reflects cultural diversity. This helps children to learn about how they differ from, or are similar to, other people. Staff praise children's positive behaviour. This helps to nurture children's confidence and promote their good behaviour.
• The skilled and trained special educational needs coordinator is enthusiastically committed in her role. She works closely with parents and other professionals to identify, plan and coordinate additional support that children need. Staff have had training on how to find and use the right communication method for each child. This includes the use of pictures, objects and signing. The sensory room provides calmness and comfort and helps children to regulate their behaviour and learn through their senses. All of this helps to ensure that these children make the best possible progress.
• Staff make sure that there is a good two-way exchange of information with parents about their child's development on an ongoing basis. This enhances parents' knowledge about how their child's learning can be best supported at home. Parents spoken to feel that their children are happy in the nursery.
• Younger children have the opportunity to experience physical challenge and manage risks for themselves. For example, they balance on the wooden planks and use the small slide. However, a small group of older, most-able children do not experience physical play that is challenging and tests their limits.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide pre-school children with more opportunities to build on and develop their knowledge of letters and sounds
• enhance the already exciting outdoor physical opportunities available so that the older, most-able children experience an even higher level of physical challenge in their play.