Chatterbox Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children run happily into nursery when they arrive and quickly engage in a range of activities, such as sensory play with foaming soap. They have strong relationships with the kind and caring staff. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Staff provide reassurance to children when needed and adapt the provision to help children settle. Staff know the children well and plan activities based on their interests. For example, children role play at being hairdressers with dolls. Staff have created a strong daily routine and have clear expectations for children's behaviour. Overall, children understand these expectations and follow them. For example, children listen to and then follow instructions well.

Staff lead group activities throughout the day to ensure all children benefit from the opportunity to participate. For example, children develop their listening and attention skills through a music group time. They are encouraged to lie down and calmly listen to the whole of the nursery rhyme before moving on to the next activity.

Children enjoy a range of challenges, such as climbing frames and balancing on beams outside. They learn how to navigate the garden on bicycles and scooters with support from staff. This helps to strengthen children's spatial awareness as well as their gross motor skills.

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

• Staff know the broad aims for children's learning, and there is a particular focus on children's personal, social and emotional development. However, some staff are unclear on the specific learning intentions for activities and how these support children's development. This means that some staff do not focus their teaching precisely enough to help children build on what they know and can do.
• Very young children have their needs met well, and routines are tailored to each individual to help ensure they feel safe and settled. Staff skilfully introduce children to new activities that engage their interests. For example, staff demonstrate pouring sand, which captures very young children's attention, and they are then eager to try for themselves.
• Children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress in their learning and development. They are well prepared for their next stage of learning, such as school. Staff skilfully support children with SEND to engage with others or to participate in an activity when needed. They recognise that development for a child with SEND may be different to that of their peers. They ensure that they celebrate each individual's progress.
• The manager uses additional funding appropriately to meet the needs of each individual child. For example, funding has been used to support children's personal, social and emotional development through books on particular subjects relevant to their needs. The manager monitors the effectiveness of this funding and plans ahead to ensure that children's needs continue to be met.
• The manager understands the importance of working with professionals when supporting children. She welcomes professionals into the nursery warmly and provides support to both children and the professionals as needed. This helps to ensure that children's well-being needs are being met.
• Staff develop children's early literacy skills in a range of ways. For example, children avidly watch staff perform a puppet show based on 'Little Red Riding Hood'. They also enjoy taking part in rhymes that begin to develop their understanding of letter sounds. Staff support children as they develop a love of reading. Children, including very young children, eagerly ask for their favourite stories to be read throughout the day.
• Parents comment highly on the nurturing and caring staff. They talk positively about the provision and the care children receive. However, they highlight that information about children's next steps, and how to support their child's learning at home, needs to be shared more. The manager has recognised this as an area she wishes to develop further and is already thinking of how best to strengthen these partnerships.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to fully understand the intent behind the curriculum to more precisely identify, and plan for, individual children's learning needs
• strengthen further partnerships with parents to make sure they know what their children are learning and how they can help their children's learning at home.