Cleverclogs Cringleford

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery happily and are greeted at the door by the extremely friendly and nurturing leaders and staff team. Softly played music provides a cosy and relaxed home-from-home atmosphere. Staff offer tailored settling-in processes, including stay-and-play sessions, which help children and parents become familiar with the environment and their key person. During these sessions, staff gather in-depth information from parents, to ensure they implement individual, daily care routines that are familiar to them. This promotes the emotional well-being of babies and children, as they swiftly build strong and trusting attachments to staff, who know them so well.

Children enjoy participating in fun, daily safety checks of the garden. Staff's interactions and engagement, supports children's awareness of potential risks in their environments effectively, so they learn how to keep themselves safe. Children play well together and generally follow staff's instructions. Staff invite parents and 'people who help us in the community', such as the local police and dentists, to visit and share their unique experiences with the children. These real-life experiences help children feel a sense of belonging and make connections between themselves and the outside world. It also teaches them how to stay safe and be healthy. Children thrive outdoors and learn about life cycles when growing produce in the nursery allotment.

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

• Overall, teaching is good quality, and all children make good progress from their starting points. Staff carry out regular and effective assessments, which means they understand children's development and how to support their next steps in learning. For example, staff support babies' physical development by encouraging 'tummy time', which strengthens their core muscles, to help them sit unaided and eventually pull to standing. Occasionally, staff do not consistently use their sound knowledge of children's interests to broaden the play and learning opportunities, and help them achieve their next stage of learning.
• The skilful leaders and staff team work collaboratively with outside professionals, such as speech and language therapists, to ensure all children make significant progress in their speech and language development. Children benefit from small interaction groups, where staff support children's speech and language development and accepting the needs of others through turn-taking games. Staff respond well to babies babbles and promote early communication with peekaboo games.
• Parents applaud the kind hearted and attentive staff, who ensure the safety and well-being of their children with sometimes complex health needs. Parents appreciate in-depth, daily communication, which helps them know how to support children's further learning at home.
• Children learn to express themselves and become in tune with their bodies through regular yoga sessions. They develop mindfulness, and learn to self-regulate their emotions through calming strategies, such as deep breathing and gentle exercise. Children giggle with delight giggle as they pretend to be elephants, stretching their arms to the floor like a trunk.
• Babies and children become increasingly independent in their self-care needs. They gradually learn to use a spoon to feed themselves. Young children gradually learn to pour their own drinks at mealtimes, with the right level of support from staff. Older children manage their self-care independently. They know to wash their hands before eating, and after using the toilet. Staff encourage them to sing a handwashing tune as part of successfully promoting good hygiene practice.
• Children play cooperatively and make close friendships. They show empathy and genuine care when independently helping their peer to separate their fingers, to fit in a glove puppet. Attentive staff provide meaningful praise for this spontaneous act of kindness. As a result, children build their self-esteem and are motivated to repeat these positive behaviours. Occasionally, staff do not always consider the most effective teaching methods, to consistently promote the high expectations they have for all children's behaviour and attitudes to learning.
• The dedicated and professional leaders frequently reflect on the service they provide, striving to continuously improve. Staff report excellent well-being and appreciate the active role leaders play in the day-to-day running of the nursery. They provide staff with training opportunities and frequently model good teaching practice, which helps less experienced staff develop their skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to build on the already good teaching so that children benefit from challenge that extends their learning further
• help staff to implement strategies that consistently help all children develop a clear understanding of the behaviours expected of them.