Buttercups Nursery School Huntworth

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and parents are greeted warmly by the friendly staff and manager. Staff create a warm, welcoming and secure environment. Children, including those who are new to the setting, confidently settle into the daily routines. Children feel safe and are well cared for. For example, through well-planned induction sessions, staff spend time getting to know the children and their parents before they start. The well-established key-person system promotes children's emotional well-being and helps them to form secure attachments.

Children thrive from a well-planned curriculum. They self-register, their artwork is displayed and their achievements acknowledged, creating a sense of belonging. There is a sharp focus on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development. Staff use positive language to support all children to understand right and wrong. For example, staff gently encourage younger children to use 'kind hands'. Pre-school children understand what is acceptable. They listen intently when staff talk to them, and they respond positively to requests, such as tidy-up time.

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

• Staff provide a range of stimulating activities based on the children's interests and next steps in learning. Children develop good concentration skills. For example, babies manipulate a foam mixture with their fingers and explore the marks they make using different tools. Toddlers develop their communication and language skills. For example, toddlers explore a 'what's in the box?' activity linked to story time, discussing the items they find. Pre-school children explore carnival music while painting, to develop fine motor skills and rhythm with the brushes. However, occasionally, some activities have large numbers of children, meaning noise levels increase and children are waiting for longer periods of time to be able to join in.
• Toddlers use a range of mathematical concepts throughout the day. They actively count how many vegetables they have in an activity, while staff encourage language of size, weight and capacity. Toddlers excitedly point out the difference in the size of their vegetables, holding them up high.
• Children benefit from spending plenty of time in the fantastic outdoor area. Babies have their own dedicated space, where they roll trucks in sand, splash in water and play on see-saws. Older children enjoy all areas, from the mud kitchen to the 'maths hut', as well as riding on bikes, negotiating around their peers. Children go outdoors in all weathers, wearing waterproofs and wellington boots when it rains.
• Toddlers and pre-school children are encouraged by staff to be independent from the outset. They learn from an early age to independently wash their hands prior to snack or mealtimes. Toddlers pour themselves a drink and wipe their own noses. Pre-school children are consistently given the opportunity to manage their own self-care needs, such as removing their wellington boots and waterproofs before coming inside and locating their own belongings.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Parents are complimentary about the manager and how caring and kind the staff team is. There are effective communication systems in place, such as the nursery online app which enables parents to see their own child's photographs and assessments. In addition, there are events, such as parent mornings, organised to share information.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language have their needs met well. Staff work well with other professionals and have targeted plans in place to meet children's individual needs. For example, they use signing, visual routines and interactive games to help children to communicate effectively.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review group sizes during activities to minimise the impact of noise levels and children waiting for long periods of times.