Buttons@ Stacey Bushes

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show extremely high levels of self-belief. They show substantial persistence and determination to complete tasks to their satisfaction. Staff celebrate children's successes and how hard they try to achieve their goals. Staff have very high expectations. Children positively work towards these expectations. Children feel proud of their achievements. Staff are extremely positive role models, helping children to celebrate their constantly gained new knowledge and skills.

Children are extremely well behaved. They learn rules and boundaries through group games. They instinctively read other children's feelings through discussions with the staff. Staff effectively support children's awareness of their own emotions. Staff encourage children to think about how they are feeling and how this impacts on their play and on others.

Children constantly share their new learning with their peers. Children take ownership of their setting. They proudly talk about what they are doing and their relationships with the staff. Children enter the setting excited and eager to see their friends and familiar staff. The staff prolifically promote children's attachments with all staff to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all. Staff are committed to promoting an extremely sensitive and supportive approach to meet the local communities' needs.

Children show high levels of awe and wonder when discovering new experiences. Staff use strong teaching skills to highly support children's innate fascination with the natural world. For example, staff encourage children to look at seed packets, exploring what they can grow, installing curiosity and recalling past learning. Children enthusiastically identify real vegetables that match the seeds, placing them in the soil to tell staff that they have grown and can now be eaten.

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

• Children rapidly extend their vocabulary, learning new words and their meaning. Staff introduce new words according to children's level of understanding. For example, staff talk about mathematical concepts when children experiment with water. Children explore balance, using scales to equal the amounts of water in each bucket. Staff use words such as 'equal', 'lighter', 'more', 'heavier', 'same' and 'different' to help children to understand this concept. Children are later heard using these new words, showing a true understanding of their extended vocabulary.
• Children have a strong determination to meet their own personal needs. Staff talk children though the process of pouring drinks, going to the toilet and washing their hands. This helps children to increase their existing confidence to try new tasks themselves. Staff inspire children to meet their own needs through encouraging discussions, supportive interactions and precise demonstrations.
• Children are committed to negotiating throughout their play. They actively invite others to share and take turns. They exceed expectations of cooperative play. Children who find social play difficult support younger children to know how to play group games with them. For example, they explain where to hide and what to count to when playing hide and seek.
• Staff provide extremely effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They carefully and subtly track children to identify triggers to behaviours. They quickly introduce one-to-one sessions that reinforce the child's expectations of social behaviour. They expertly distract them to engage in purposeful interactions. This helps them to appreciate positive play with others, while managing their feelings.
• Children are making exceptional progress. Young children experience simple, modelled learning to help develop a confident attitude to experience new skills. Older children are constantly challenged by staff's questions and interactions throughout their play. Staff introduce new ideas through explanations and questions. For example, older children think about a safe process to pick apples off the tree. They think critically as to how to balance on logs, assessing their and others' safety to reach the branch that the apples are on. Staff stand back and give children suggestions to see how they solve this problem.
• The management team works tirelessly to provide an enabling environment for staff. Management expect staff to reflect on their practice every day. Staff have effective support from management to review practice and provide training to enable ongoing improvements to promote children's learning and care needs.
• Parents make extremely positive comments about the staff's support for their children and their families. Staff use additional funding highly effectively to successfully support children and their families from disadvantaged backgrounds. Parents feel that the whole staff team makes a difference to children's well-being, welfare and their ongoing learning and development. Parents feel that their children are extremely ready for school when they leave.