Deux Chats Pre-School Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending this welcoming nursery. They arrive happily and settle quickly, waving goodbye to their parents and putting away their coats and bags. The effective key-person system means children build strong attachments with staff and seek them for reassurance and cuddles when needed. Children receive regular praise after they make attempts to put on their coats and zip them up to go outdoors. This supports their confidence and self-esteem.

Children relish in their interactions with staff and include them in their play. For example, they use scoops to fill containers with soil, as they pretend to plant vegetables together. Children develop good speech and language skills. They sing songs, read stories such as 'Dear Zoo', and take joy in having conversations with staff and other children. Children's literacy skills are supported well. For instance, books, including those in dual languages, are available for all children to share, with staff or with their friends, to develop children's love of reading. Children's home languages are valued in the setting. Staff communicate with children through the use of visual cues and keywords in their home languages. This helps children to share their needs, wants and wishes.

Children are safe and secure. They confidently explore the indoor and outdoor environment, as they climb, dig in sand and explore a range of interesting activities, which support their good physical development. Children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning and behave well. They are respectful of each other and play cooperatively. Children learn about making healthy choices at snack time. They choose from a selection of fruit and cereals and sit together, as they enjoy the sociable mealtimes.

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

• The manager has a clear vision about delivering quality education, which is shared by staff. They understand the importance of sequential learning and teach children the skills and knowledge needed for the next stage of learning, such as starting school. Overall, the quality of teaching is good and staff deliver the curriculum well. Additional funding is used well to target support for disadvantaged children, for example by providing specific resources to support the children's needs. However, staff do not always use opportunities as they arise, to build on what children know and can do, to extend their learning further.
• Staff have a good knowledge and understanding of children's needs and abilities. Staff recognise additional support some children need and quickly put additional strategies in place to meet those. All children, including those with special education needs and/or disabilities, make good progress in their learning.
• However, staff do not gather a full range of information from parents, to help inform their planning and support children to make the best possible progress.
• The nursery is inclusive and welcomes staff and families from a diverse range of backgrounds. Children explore and learn about festivals celebrated by children and families in the setting, such as Dashain. This helps to support children's understanding of their own cultures, and to understand and be respectful of the cultures of others. Collectively, staff and the manager strive to continually provide the best care to families who are disadvantaged or suffering hardship. They offer support and links to services which families may need.
• Partnerships with parents is strong. Staff use a variety of ways to communicate with parents, such as daily updates and newsletters. For those parents who speak English as an additional language, staff seek ways to communicate in their first language. Some staff speak two languages, which helps them to share key information. This helps to ensure that all parents are included in children's learning experiences. Parents have very high regard for the nursery and staff. They comment that their children are happy, they feel safe and are making good progress in their learning. Parents appreciate the support from staff with ideas and strategies to support children's learning at home.
• Staff well-being is high. All staff feel well-supported and enjoy working as a team, resulting in a high level of staff retention. Managers use regular supervision meetings to focus on staff practice. Staff have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of professional development opportunities to extend their early years knowledge. However, staff professional development is not always targeted specifically to build on their teaching skills, to help raise the quality of education to an even higher level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen systems for gathering information about all children's individual needs, when they first start and on an ongoing basis, to help staff consistently support their learning
• focus more precisely on staff's professional development to help raise the quality of teaching even further.