Children 1st @ Grantham

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children, including those who speak English as an additional language, show positive relationships with staff and their peers. Babies show kindness when they give their friends cuddles to celebrate their achievements. Children go to their key person for comfort and reassurance when they become upset. Children behave well. With support from staff, they learn to share and take turns when they play with others.

Staff support children to progress in their learning. For example, they encourage babies to develop strength in their bodies that enables them to take their first steps. Staff help three- and four-year-old children to understand measurements and numbers. When children use wooden blocks to construct a tower, staff suggest that they use a tape measure to see how tall it is. Children are asked to recognise the numbers they see. One-year-old children show great excitement when they are offered opportunities to play in the garden. They laugh, point to the garden and are keen to ride in toy cars. Three- and four-year-old children manage risks in their play when they climb on low-level trees. These experiences provide children with physically active play. Three- and four-year-old children show their understanding of safety procedures in the nursery. For example, they are quick to notice and close gates between the different rooms to help maintain a secure environment.

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

• Staff nurture children by teaching them effective strategies to express their emotions and manage their feelings. For example, when children are sad, staff give them bubble mixture and encourage them to blow their sadness away. Other children pop the bubbles as they float in the air, helping their friends to make their sadness disappear. This promotes children's personal, social and emotional development.
• Staff know the children well. They plan activities to support children's development. For example, staff encourage babies to develop their hand-to-eye coordination when they show them how to build and stack objects on top of each other. However, occasionally, during some planned activities for three- and four-year-old children, staff do not help them to build on their knowledge. For example, when children smell and cut herbs, staff do not help them to understand what the different herbs are called.
• The manager uses additional funding effectively to meet children's individual needs. For example, staff offer children with special educational needs and/or disabilities one-to-one support in their play. Staff work in partnership with parents and other professionals to put targeted plans in place to help children to progress in their development.
• Staff encourage children to learn skills for the future, such as being independent. For example, one- and two-year-old children are encouraged to put on their shoes and coats to play outdoors. Staff offer children varying levels of support while still allowing children to complete the task on their own.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. For example, they sing nursery rhymes with babies. Staff encourage one- and two-year-old children to choose favourite action songs to sing. They ask three- and four-year-old children a good range of questions to encourage their thinking skills.
• Staff praise children for their achievements. For example, they clap their hands when babies begin to walk. Staff skilfully use distraction when children stand on objects. They show them how to behave positively.
• Staff plan opportunities for children to sit with others to develop their social skills. However, occasionally, staff do not plan group times well enough for one- and two-year-old children to maintain and engage their attention. Children lose interest and quickly move on to activities that they choose themselves.
• Staff talk to parents about their children's experiences during the day. They invite parents to attend meetings to discuss their children's progress. Parents are invited to share information with staff about children's achievements at home. This helps to promote a united approach to supporting children's development.
• Overall, children show a good understanding of the rules and boundaries that staff have developed. However, on occasion, at times of transition within the daily routine, staff do not support children well enough to respond to their requests. At these times, some children do not follow the instructions given to them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance staff's ability to build further on three- and four-year-old children's knowledge during planned activities
• support staff to plan group times for one- and two-year-old children more effectively to maintain their interest
• support staff to encourage children to respond promptly to their requests during transitions within the daily routine.