Early Milestones Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to attend this warm and welcoming setting. Staff greet them with smiles and hugs, and children leave their parents with ease. Less confident children have extra cuddles with staff, who calmly give them time to settle before they are ready to join in the activities. This helps children with their emotional security, helping them to feel safe and secure. Staff design the environment and curriculum to ensure children develop their skills in all areas of learning. For example, some children work together to build models with construction bricks. Others create patterns on paper plates with art materials. They develop a range of skills such as hand-eye coordination and imagination as they do so. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make progress from their starting points.

Children's behaviour is good. At the beginning of activities, staff remind children of the rules such as 'good listening' and 'good sitting'. Staff praise children as they attempt things, and children are keen to try and have a 'can-do' attitude. For example, children throw a bean bag into hoops, as they succeed, they smile and show great animation in their actions to display their pleasure. Staff support other children to keep trying if they miss and praise their efforts as they try. This supports children's self-esteem and builds their confidence to keep trying.

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

• The manager is passionate about the setting. She wants all children to be confident learners and be ready for the next stage in their learning journey. She has a strong vision for the setting, which is currently expanding to meet local demands. Staff feel the manager supports them well. She checks their well-being and gives supervisions and feedback to ensure they develop best practice. Staff have access to regular training to improve their knowledge and teaching skills. All training is disseminated back to other staff to ensure it has a positive impact on the children's learning.
• A large range of activities promotes children's skills in all areas of the curriculum. For example, outdoors they use wheeled toys to push and scoot around, building their large-muscle skills and developing coordination. Indoors they play happily with role play or sit quietly and look through books. In the main, children engage well in their learning. However, there are times when the curriculum does not always focus enough on children's individual learning needs and can sometimes lack challenge to ensure the very best outcomes in children's learning.
• The setting works closely with other professionals to support children's learning. For example, for children with SEND, staff work with parents and other professionals to gain advice and guidance that is incorporated into the children's learning. The manager initiates further community links. For example, a health visitor attends a termly drop-in session for parents to access for advice and guidance. Staff invite teachers into the setting to support children's transitions to school.
• Staff are good role models for speech and language. They talk to the children and narrate their play. Early interventions help children who are waiting for external support, such as speech and language therapy.
• Staff have a variety of experiences and knowledge enabling them to provide meaningful learning to extend children's development and skills. However, on occasion, staff do not always focus on and fully engage with the children. They may be distracted by other children or be deployed to cover another area. This can impact the opportunities children have to gain the very best from their learning.
• Parent partnership is strong, and the parents show a desire to say how much they value the setting and the staff. They have good daily communications as they talk to staff who are always on hand to listen. The setting also provides newsletters and updates on social media. Parents feel staff are very caring towards the children and feel their children have made good progress in their development.
• The setting provides daily snacks of fruit or cereal. Children bring a packed lunch from home and food times are a happy and social event. Children and staff sit together and engage in conversations with each other. The setting supports children's health and well-being initiatives such as brilliant brushes to encourage children to look after their teeth and healthy movers to undertake daily exercise and look after their well-being. These have had a strong impact on children and parents report that they now love to brush their teeth at home too. This supports children to learn about looking after their bodies and sets them up for a healthy lifestyle.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review staff organisation to ensure children receive quality engagement and interaction from staff
• strengthen teaching to further inspire children's interest and curiosity and ensure that there is challenge and meaningful learning opportunities for all children.