Busy Lizzy Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy, content and confident. They settle quickly, developing close relationships and bonds with staff. They confidently explore and experiment in their play, extending this from inside to outside. Children feel good about themselves. They are constantly encouraged and praised. Staff help them to develop high levels of self-esteem, through their enthusiasm and positive engagement in their play.

Children develop good imaginations. They use stories, role play, small world resources and creative activities to show their understanding of the difference between real-life situations and fantasy play.

Children demonstrate high levels of focus and concentration in their play. During story times, children listen intently. They become engrossed in activities and show a clear enjoyment of new experiences. Staff support this well through their enthusiasm, their sensitive engagement and the effective use of questions. They encourage children to learn from their mistakes.

Children learn about healthy lifestyles. Staff encourage them to extend their play outdoors to gain fresh air. They learn about the importance of healthy choices of food through discussions, snack time and their packed lunches. Children learn about keeping active and healthy through physical play. They quickly develop new skills, such as pedalling trikes and using their feet to propel them along on ride-on toys.

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

• The staff team work well together. They promote consistency and continuity for children and their families. They support each other well and complement each other's strengths in practice. They recognise their individual areas to improve and are enthusiastic to develop their knowledge further.
• Children develop close relationships and friendships with their peers. They learn to take turns and appreciate other children's contributions in their play. They enthusiastically share other children's achievements with staff, showing a growing understanding of feeling proud for others. For example, children are quick to tell staff about other children's new skills of writing letters and drawing pictures.
• Staff support children's development of communication and language. They carefully challenge every child according to their level of development. They introduce new vocabulary, simple sentences and complex statements. They encourage children to recall and retell stories to help them to share experiences and books with others.
• Children with additional needs receive positive support to help them close gaps in their development. Staff use many different ways to encourage communication and understanding through gestures, pictures, expressive language, expressions and speech. They use effective open-ended questions to help children to think for themselves and express their needs.
• Staff provide experiences to help enrich children's experiences. They use information about children's home lives and encourage children to share these experiences with others. For example, children talk about the pets that they have at home. The staff provide activities and resources to encourage all children to learn about caring for animals.
• Staff recognise children's strengths. They celebrate and extend these successfully through children's play. Sometimes, staff do not always recognise when most-able children's enthusiasm and confidence have an impact on less-confident children's participation in some activities and play.
• Staff are eager to develop and progress in their practice and professional status. They listen to ideas and strategies and implement these immediately. Staff understand the importance of a flexible approach to children's learning. They adapt their teaching to support individual's children's needs as well as the changing needs of group of children attending.
• Staff understand the needs of the local community and work with local schools to make children's transition to their next place of learning as smooth as possible. They highly promote the continuous journey in children's progress.
• Staff have a clear knowledge of supporting children with gaps in their learning. They work with other professionals and children's parents to provide a consistent approach to children's progress. They use additional funding carefully to help support children's learning in readiness for school. Parents and grandparents make positive comments about the progress their children are making in this setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff's understanding of ensuring children of differing levels of confidence have opportunities to fully participate in all learning experiences.