Cornmeadow Early Years and Families

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children make excellent progress in this inspiring setting, where they feel safe and secure. They happily and confidently enter the setting and explore a wide range of activities that are accessible to them. Resources and activities are carefully planned by staff, to stimulate children's development and a love of learning.

Children communicate confidently with their friends, staff and visitors. Pre-school children talk about a recent visitor to the setting, as part of their topic about emergency services. They enthusiastically describe the ambulance, the sounds it makes and what the paramedic told them about staying safe. Children talk about the importance of wearing safety helmets while riding bicycles and remind visitors to use the zebra crossing to cross the tricycle track in the nursery garden. Younger children join in with familiar action songs and nursery rhymes. Children react with awe and wonder when staff encourage them to say 'abracadabra', as the room darkens and the ceiling lights up with stars. Children sing, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' soothingly as they wind down and prepare for lunch.

Children's behaviour is excellent. The familiar routine ensures children know what to expect next. Staff use positive reinforcement and model expected behaviour to ensure children follow the setting's rules. Children listen to, understand and follow clear instructions given by staff. Children use good manners, take turns and are respectful to staff and their friends.

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

• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are exceptionally well supported. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works proactively with parents and other professionals, to ensure children make the best possible progress. The manager and staff review and adapt the provision to create an inclusive environment that accommodates all children, including those with complex physical needs.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Home visits prior to children joining the setting ensure staff understand what children already know and can do. Parents complete 'family trees' to inform staff of the important people in children's lives. Children's developmental targets are set with parents and regularly reviewed.
• Parents talk positively about children's key-person relationships and communication from staff. Staff also provide advice and guidance for home learning. The manager has created a selection of leaflets to support parents' understanding of how to help children develop at home, including information about toilet training, communication and language and behaviour management.
• Specialist staff training ensures that children with language and communication delay, and children with English as an additional language (EAL) are fully supported. Staff use visual images, sign language and small group focus times to develop children's communication and language skills. Children with EAL also use sound buttons with familiar songs in their home language. Furthermore, high ratios of staff to children ensure staff are available to model language, share stories and support children throughout the day.
• Highly skilled and animated staff lead group sessions that capture children's interests. Staff provide children with time to think and respond to open questions that extend their learning. Carefully planned activities introduce new vocabulary and concepts. For example, during a dance session, children explore how to stretch up tall like giraffes and crouch down like tiny tortoises. They move fast and slow as they jump like frogs, waddle like penguins and swing like monkeys while moving freely to the music.
• Staff promote healthy living. They model good hygiene, remind children to drink to stay hydrated and eat healthy snacks and meals. They manage rest and sleep safely, and encourage exercise indoors and out, to develop children's physical skills and well-being. Children climb steps, negotiate a bridge and slide indoors, while outside they run around, pedal tractors and negotiate obstacles in the fresh air. Physical education sessions run by visiting sports specialists and the woodland play area, provide further opportunities for children to develop their physical skills. Staff support children's emotional well-being. They help children to label their emotions, build their resilience skills and learn to self-regulate.
• Leadership and management are exemplary. The manager has high expectations of staff and carefully recruits staff that share the same vision. Staff have key development roles within the setting and report high levels of support from the manager. The manager monitors and constantly reviews the provision, taking the views of staff and parents into account. She actively seeks further training for staff. She has developed close working partnerships with local schools and other early years settings to share best practice and improve outcomes for children. She has ambitious plans for the future to develop an 'Eco hut' where children will learn about the environment and sustainability.