Creative Flair Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at this warm and nurturing nursery. They receive a friendly welcome from the kind and caring staff. Staff are highly attentive to children's emotional needs. They offer children comfort and reassurance when they need it. This helps all children to settle in and feel secure.

Staff plan and provide a rich and varied range of activities and experiences that capture children's interests and support them to make good progress in their learning. Children delight in playing outdoors. Babies practise their physical skills as they climb up and down steps and ramps. Two-year-old children immerse themselves in the natural world around them. They eagerly look for wildlife and are ecstatic when they find a worm. Children use a magnifying glass to look closely at the worm and staff show them how to measure it with a ruler. Older children are creative in practising their early writing skills. They make marks using paint brushes and chalks. Children explore what happens when they mix the chalk with water to make paint. They further develop their small hand muscles by using pipets to transport water across different containers.

Staff have high expectations for every child. Children are supported to become independent in carrying out tasks for themselves. They wash their own hands at appropriate times and use different utensils to serve their own meals and snacks. Staff encourage children to use cutlery to cut their own food and feed themselves from an early age.

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

• Leaders and managers are fully committed to giving every child the very best education. Their passion for excellence is inspirational to staff. The curriculum gives priority to supporting children's progress across the prime areas of learning. Staff deliver the curriculum in fun and innovative ways so that children quickly develop a positive attitude towards their learning.
• Staff get to know every child, and their families, well. They regularly exchange information with parents about children's care and the next steps in their learning. This helps to provide continuity between nursery and at home. Staff use their knowledge of children's interests and stages of development to plan activities that children enjoy. That said, staff do not always use these opportunities to challenge children's learning further so that they make even more progress in their development.
• Children behave well because they are continuously engaged in interesting experiences. When needed, staff take time to explain to children how to behave towards others. When children become frustrated, such as when they cannot reach a book they have dropped, staff support them by modelling how to talk to their friends kindly to ask them to move. This helps children learn how to resolve conflict and issues themselves.
• Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive high levels of support. Staff swiftly identify gaps in children's learning and liaise with parents and other professionals without delay. Individualised plans are implemented effectively for children so that key persons can provide the necessary support for them to make progress in their learning.
• Staff consistently report that leaders and managers are extremely supportive and recognise the pressures they face. Staff access regular opportunities for training and professional development, which is tailored to their needs. They are currently undertaking a mindfulness programme, which intends to promote their own well-being. Regular supervisions are provided to all staff to advocate the interests of children.
• Parents are complimentary about the nursery. They state that staff are welcoming, and that the nursery has a warm and family feel. Parents welcome the vast amount of information that is shared with them. They are invited into the nursery for stay and play sessions and to talk with other professionals, such as the health visitor, to further benefit their children.
• Children are exposed to a broad range of vocabulary. Babies are taught how to communicate using gestures, such as when they say thank you to others. Staff model new words to all children during their play and frequently sing songs alongside them. Staff ask children lots of questions about what they are doing. However, sometimes staff do not always listen to what children say or allow children enough opportunities to talk and share their own ideas so that they build on their ability to hold a two-way conversation.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase the support for children's communication and language development
• support staff to strengthen their teaching skills even further so that they consistently provide higher levels of challenge for children.