Doodles and Pops Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily and ready to learn. Leaders have a clear curriculum intent. Children experience a well-planned curriculum that supports them to make good progress in their learning. Children are eager to explore, and staff build strong bonds with them. Children enjoy making choices in their play. Younger children use play dough and choose tools to make marks. Staff promote fine motor skills well as they encourage children to prod, roll and press the dough. Older children enjoy choosing paint colours to create scales on their fish paintings.

Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour, and children behave well. Younger children develop good manners as they learn to say 'please' and 'thank you', and older children share and take turns well. Staff show great levels of care and nurture children with praise, cuddles and reassurance. Babies are well supported. They have a calm environment that promotes well-being.

Staff promote physical development well. They support the balance skills of babies as they practise walking. Young children develop coordination and whole-body control as staff lead a singing session, and children enjoy waving scarves in time to the singing. Older children dance to action songs, and staff speak with them about the effects of movement on their bodies. Children focus hard as they feel the beating of their heart.

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

• Children's communication and language skills are promoted. They develop a love of books and stories and have a positive attitude to learning. Staff routinely use a range of communication strategies with younger children, such as signing. These help develop children's confidence to share their thoughts and feelings. Staff listen and respond sensitively to older children. However, shy children are not consistently supported to participate. Some staff use signing to support children's confidence and communication, but this practise is not as consistent as it is with younger children.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents appreciate the daily updates they receive when collecting their children and feel staff know children very well. They feel staff are professional and support their children to thrive.
• Leadership is strong. Their vision of teaching children that, 'Who they are is exactly what they need to be' is shared by staff. The robust and regular monitoring, supervision and support for staff promote high-quality care for children. Leaders and staff regularly reflect on their practice and assess the quality of the provision to identify areas for development. For example, the routines for children at the start of each day have been adapted to ensure that children have quality, uninterrupted time with their key person. Staff's well-being is good. Staff feel that leaders care and support them to develop skills and knowledge to fulfil their roles well.
• Children enjoy freshly prepared meals. Staff support younger children to develop independence at feeding themselves. The experience is social, and children develop an awareness and understanding of others as they learn about their friends' pets.
• Staff monitor children's progress, and support is sought swiftly where it will benefit children's development. For example, speech and language therapy is prioritised where needed. Children in receipt of this have made rapid progress with their communication skills since receiving targeted intervention and are now progressing well.
• As children play outside, staff extend children's curiosity. Children display such focus as they construct with hollow tubes. They pose questions such as, 'Did you hear my voice went really loud in the tube tunnel?' Children then investigate how their voice sounds different as they speak in the end of tubes. Children giggle as they use a high voice and then a deep voice. The quality of learning is diminished when the group using the area increases. Children bump into each other. Younger children cannot find a clear path to their activity of choice, and children become unsettled and disengage.
• Staff support older children well to develop independence. As children persevere with applying their own sunscreen, staff excitedly say, 'You are amazing. You have done your own sun cream and are now looking shiny and safe.' Younger children's independence is hindered by resources and toys being stored out of their reach. For example, there is an inviting display with the weekly story on and lots of sea creatures to play with. Children attempt to reach it to play with but are unsuccessful.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan effectively for activities, making the best use of space and minimising distractions to best support children's engagement and development
• improve organisation of the learning environment for younger children to enable them to freely access and engage with activities of their choosing and increase their independence
• promote a range of communication strategies with older children consistently so all children can confidently share their needs and wants.