Cottage Day

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff use effective strategies to help children learn to regulate their behaviour. For example, when children engage in role play, staff encourage them to count the 'delivery vans' and think about how to share them fairly with their peers who join in their play. Children behave well and learn to take account of the needs of others.

Staff are caring and support children's emotional needs well. Parents provide positive views about the close attachments their children form with the staff. Babies enjoy cuddles with their key person, and toddlers enjoy sharing their play experiences with staff. Older children chat happily with staff, for instance about the plans for their upcoming birthday party.

Children develop as confident communicators. Staff introduce young children to new words, for example, through stories and songs. Older children who speak more than one language are encouraged to translate words and count in their home languages. This also helps children to develop a sense of belonging. The curriculum is effective to promote individual children's needs.

The provider has high aims for all children and works closely with parents and professionals to meet the needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

• The provider reflects well on the effectiveness of the curriculum and the practice and provision to ensure good standards in children's learning and care. Children make good progress from their starting points and are prepared well for next stages in their learning and their move to school.
• The provider ensures that staff are supervised regularly and supported to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively. Staff are encouraged to undertake training that is pertinent to the needs of the children they work with. This enables them to continually improve their practice. However, the arrangements for induction of agency staff are not fully effective to further strengthen the quality of children's learning experiences.
• Staff use assessments effectively to identify areas in which individual children need additional support. They provide regular updates to parents regarding children's progress and work on advice from other professionals, such as health visitors, to support individual children's progress.
• Staff provide regular opportunities for children to exercise outdoors and enjoy the fresh air. Toddlers are excited as they learn to kick a ball. Older children learn to take risks, for example as they learn to walk on a row of tyres. Staff provide healthy meals for children and work closely with parents to meet the needs of individual children.
• Staff work closely with parents to support children to learn to use the toilet independently. They plan ways to support children's emotional needs and confidence during these learning experiences.
• Staff promote children's understanding of the world. Babies are stimulated to explore with their senses. Staff introduce toddlers to the names of creatures that live in the sea, such as 'jelly fish' and 'octopus', and they use props to stimulate children's interest and encourage their participation. Staff identify and promote older children's interest in learning about bugs and insects. Children excitedly say that they know the sound a cricket makes.
• Staff encourage children's participation in activities such as tidying up after play. However, they do not always allow enough time for children to finish what they are doing and prepare themselves to move on to another activity, such as transition from play to lunchtime.
• Children build on their fine motor skills. For example, they learn to stick pictures of apples to a template of an apple tree. Older children learn to use mark-making equipment effectively to draw pictures. Babies learn to turn the pages of a book and learn to point to illustrations. Older children enjoy exploring construction material. They build on their hand-eye coordination, for example, as they connect pieces to build a tower.
• The provider understands their responsibility to inform Ofsted of significant events. However, they have not informed Ofsted, as required, of changes that may affect the suitability of anyone who works with children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff practice to manage transitions effectively, particularly to enable sufficient time for children to finish one activity and be prepared to move to the next
• improve the induction of agency staff to address occasional gaps in the quality of teaching and to promote consistency in children's learning experiences.