Cheeky Monkeys

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at this welcoming nursery. During outdoor play, toddlers use their arm muscles as they play ball games with staff. They concentrate as they try to catch balls that staff have thrown to them. Staff encourage children to persevere, which sees children smile with pride when they are successful. Pre-school children use their leg muscles to push themselves along on bicycles. They show agility as they ride their bicycles around the play area, safely negotiating the large outdoor equipment. Staff recognise that some babies are gaining confidence on their feet. They gently hold babies' hands, motivating them to steadily walk to the different activities on offer. This supports children's developing physical skills.

Staff carefully consider how to support all children to do as much for themselves as possible. For example, they support older babies to progress from using beakers to open cups, and from using spoons to forks. Staff are vigilant, noticing when toddlers struggle to use cutlery. They offer support and demonstrate how to use cutlery correctly. Pre-school children eagerly help staff tidy away resources, access the toilet themselves and wash their hands before mealtimes. They are supported to take turns to pour their own drinking water and staff offer a helping hand when needed. This helps develop children's early independence skills.

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

• Parents are positive about the care their children receive. They say staff provide regular updates about what their children have been doing at the setting. Parents state staff provide support and guidance to help their child make good progress. For example, staff work with parents to share strategies to help with children's speech and language development and with supporting positive behaviours.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to develop their small-muscle skills. This helps children practise the skills needed for early writing. For example, older babies enjoy washing dolls during water play. They use their hand muscles to squeeze water from sponges and squirt water from bottles. Other babies use toy dinosaurs to make footprints in oats. Staff say, 'stomp, stomp, stomp,' as they demonstrate how to make marks in the oats, which babies readily copy.
• Overall, staff promote children's communication and language skills well. During care routines, babies babble back and forth to staff during conversation. When children find a wasp outside, they listen as staff explain they must take care as wasps may sting. Children expand on this, confidently telling their friends that nettles can also sting. That said, there are times when staff do not enable children sufficient time to process new information or respond to questions that are being asked. This means that children do not always have time to think or share their own thoughts and ideas.
• Staff help children to develop their early mathematical knowledge. For example, children eagerly work with staff to collect twigs. Staff use words such as 'taller, bigger' and 'shorter' while children compare the sizes of the twigs. Additionally, older babies work with staff to build small towers from colourful wooden bricks. Staff name colours and count with babies as they carefully place one brick on top of another. This helps children learn simple mathematical concepts.
• Staff are good role models. They encourage children to use their manners, share resources and be mindful of their friends. In turn, children show kindness towards others. For example, they notice their friends are making a pretend birthday cake from mud. Children fill a tub with water and take it to the activity for their friends to use. Children receive praise for their help.
• Overall, daily routines are well organised and support children to learn. However, on occasion, children's learning is interrupted. Story and song time is disrupted by staff preparing the room for lunchtime and from other children who continue to play nearby. Consequently, children lose focus. Some pre-school children leave the story, preferring to play with toys, and some older babies wander around the room. This disrupts children and their ability to fully listen and engage in learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children sufficient time to gather their thoughts, process new information and respond to questions being asked by adults to further support their communication skills
• develop the organisation of story and song time to ensure children are not interrupted, to enable children to remain engaged and focused.