Children's Corner Childcare LLP (Valley View)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly in this welcoming and friendly setting. They develop secure attachments with the nurturing staff team. Staff gather detailed information from parents when children first start to find out what children already know and can do. They create a home-from-home environment and follow children's individual routines. Babies giggle and smile as staff play alongside them. They explore paint and fresh flowers as they make marks on paper. Staff offer praise and encouragement as children play. They provide a running commentary and talk about the marks they can see children making. This helps to promote children's self-esteem.

Children benefit from an ambitious curriculum that helps them to develop excellent levels of independence. Staff create a calming and supportive environment, which includes low-level resources for children to select from during their play. All children are encouraged to follow good hygiene practices. Young toddlers know where to find tissues to blow their noses. All children learn to wash their hands and learn about the importance of washing away germs. Lunchtime is a social occasion. Children sit in small groups and learn to serve themselves. They help with tasks appropriate to their age, such as handing out cutlery, cups and plates. Children behave well.

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

• The nursery manager is friendly, approachable and very supportive of staff and the families who attend. She provides regular supervision sessions for staff. Staff speak highly of the support she provides, including regular well-being checks and meetings. The manager seeks the views of parents, including inviting parents to recommend members of staff for their hard work and endeavour. The manager has a clear vision for what she wants children to learn and works alongside staff to offer coaching and act as a role model for good practice This helps her to evaluate the setting well and identify training needs for staff.
• A key strength of the setting is partnership working with parents. Parents are invited in to the setting to join in with celebrations and events. They are provided with detailed information about their children's learning and development. This includes regular observations, photos and assessments of children's learning. There is a lending library available for parents and children to choose a story book to read at home together. This helps to provide a consistent approach to children's learning.
• There is a strong focus on promoting children's communication and language skills at the setting. For instance, an external professional regularly visits the setting and carries out sign language activities with older children. Children benefit from this and show excitement when she arrives to set up the activities.
• They also benefit from regular singing sessions and stories. However, staff do not ensure that words are pronounced correctly when reading to children. For instance, they use words such as 'doggy, 'horsey' and 'piggy'. This means that some children are not exposed to the correct rich vocabulary to help develop their speaking skills.
• Children demonstrate excellent physical skills. They ask others to watch as they climb, balance and coordinate their movements across tricky obstacle courses in the nursery garden. They proudly show others how quickly they can manoeuvre over the tyres, crates and climbing frame. This demonstrates children's high levels of self-confidence. Babies and toddlers use indoor climbing frames and successfully climb and toddle back and forth.
• Children use their senses throughout their play. For instance, during baking activities, children comment that the lemon essence smells 'sour'. They count as they take turns to add ingredients and recall what else they need to add in to bake their cakes. Staff encourage children to use weighing scales and count how many spoonfuls of flour they need. This helps to develop children's mathematical skills.
• Children show that they are aware of the nursery routine and what happens next. However, sometimes, children are left waiting too long during activities and before key times of the day such as lunchtime. This means that some children lose interest and become distracted.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that words are pronounced correctly, particularly when reading stories to children, to enable them to hear rich and accurate vocabulary
• review transition times during activities and throughout the nursery session to ensure that children are not left waiting too long and engage in their learning.