Care Chiefs

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy and settled in this warm, vibrant and welcoming nursery. They quickly develop close and trusting bonds with the caring and patient staff team. Children continuously demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. Staff's interactions with children are encouraging, supportive and playful. Babies in particular benefit from the kind and nurturing approach of staff. Children's social skills and their language development continue to remain a focus following the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff's efforts are clearly evident. Children are motivated to learn. They are curious and explore their surroundings with confidence, engaging with visitors and smiling broadly.

Children respond well to the high expectations that staff have. They demonstrate enthusiasm for learning and concentrate well on the activities they have chosen. Children behave well for their age. This is because staff have considered their practice and consistently offer clear and gentle reminders that help children to understand right from wrong. Furthermore, following the last inspection, leaders have made changes to the layout of rooms and routines which in turn has had a positive impact on children's behaviour. The creation of calm areas provides children with a safe space they can retreat to as they learn to manage their feelings and behaviour. As a result, children are engaged. They are focused and determined to achieve the tasks they set out to do.

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

• Leaders have worked tirelessly to bring about significant improvements since the last inspection. There has been a very proactive approach to address the concerns raised previously and staff comment on the differences that they can see. Leaders have embraced support from the local authority to implement changes. This has had a positive impact on how the setting is run and the experiences and opportunities available to children. Leadership is strong. Staff are supported successfully through a range of training, supervision meetings and observations of their practice. Feedback from parents is overwhelmingly positive.
• Staff provide a broad and balanced curriculum that covers all areas of learning. They gather precise information when children first start and use this knowledge to plan purposeful activities that help children to make good progress. Continuous observations of children's progress help staff to identify the next step in children's learning. However, occasionally some staff do not embrace opportunities as they arise to challenge children's learning and understanding even further.
• Children's communication and language skills are given high regard. Staff working with babies ensure that they continually model language. They label objects and use repetition to aid understanding. Those staff supporting toddlers, skilfully model conversation and back and forth interactions. They use descriptive language and simple questioning techniques. Pre-school staff continuously narrate children's play which helps to give meaning to what they are doing and ensures that children hear a rich variety of vocabulary. Leaders are aware of the impact on children's language development following the pandemic. They have attended purposeful training that will enable them to quickly identify children who require additional support. Subsequently, staff are able to implement strategies and initiatives to help close gaps in children's development. As a result, children are becoming confident and skilful communicators.
• Children thoroughly enjoy being outdoors. They eagerly play in the 'mud kitchen' where they use herbs to enhance their dough. Children play with the dinosaurs in the 'swamp' as they transport water along long pipes. They create potions and excitedly talk about the different aromas they can smell. However, sometimes in their eagerness to help, staff do not always promote children's problem-solving skills. Their kind and caring nature means that they quickly offer solutions rather than allowing children the time to develop their critical thinking skills and experiment independently.
• Staff have successfully created a love of literacy among children. Children of all ages independently select books and snuggle with staff to listen to their favourite tales. Children refer to books continuously throughout the day. Pre-school children talk about how a story begins and understand what characters are and the role of an author. Families are able to borrow books to enjoy at home and children are gifted books to support the current learning at nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen teaching further by ensuring that staff challenge and extend children's ideas and build on what they already know and can do
• assist staff to develop their practice consistently, so that they encourage children to solve their own problems as they play and develop their critical thinking skills.