Early Steps Dudley

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time with the staff in this nursery. School-age children enjoy the opportunity to relax and play with their friends during the school holidays. Children are happy and safe as they play, explore and learn. They thoroughly enjoy the opportunities for adventurous play and experiences outdoors. Staff teach older children how to jump safely from climbing equipment. Two-year-old children enjoy balancing at the top of a sloped wall and learn how to descend it safely.

Children make good progress and develop a wealth of useful skills that prepare them well for school. They are confident communicators. Conversations flow easily between staff and children. Babies use single words and gestures to make their needs and wishes known. Older children discuss their preferences, such as the various toppings they like on their pancakes. They develop interesting storylines in their role play.

Children gain good levels of independence and eagerly attempt everyday tasks for themselves. Staff provide babies and younger children with a good level of age-appropriate challenge to support them to be independent at mealtimes. This includes, serving their food, pouring drinks and learning how to progress from a spoon to a knife and fork. Older children make decisions about when they will have their snacks and access drinks for themselves.

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

• Leaders have designed a curriculum that focuses on helping children to be inquisitive and to experiment with their own ideas. Staff understand the curriculum aims and implement these successfully. They make good use of their observations of children to plan well for their learning. Leaders ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive targeted support.
• Overall, staff provide children with quality interactions to help them to build on their knowledge and skills. However, there are times when staff working with older children do not recognise when they need to adapt their teaching and consider how they can further support children who are leading their own play.
• Leaders have effective systems in place to work with schools when children start their Reception year. Staff work closely with parents to gather information about children when they start. However, leaders do not have fully successful partnership working with the previous settings that children have attended, to obtain comprehensive information about children's starting points.
• Leaders are committed to making continual improvements that benefit children. They value the staff team and support them to extend their professional knowledge and skills. Management, apprentices and less experienced staff all receive effective, targeted support. Leaders are currently supporting staff to further enhance the already good curriculum provision for babies.
• Parent partnership working is good. Parents say how their children enjoy attending the nursery and holiday club. Leaders have recently made changes, so that children and their parents are greeted by their key person or a familiar member of staff who knows them well. Staff provide parents with regular updates about their children's progress.
• Staff plan many opportunities for children to make links with their own experiences and to explore through role play. For example, babies and young children thoroughly enjoy serving food and drinks at their tea party. They concentrate as they mix fruit teabags with water and explore the aroma and colour change. Older children dress up in role-play costumes and take on the role of various characters.
• Staff support children's health well. Children know that they wash their hands before they eat their nutritiously balanced meals and snacks. Staff follow good hygiene routines at nappy changing times and when they serve food.
• Children behave well and understand the staff's expectations of them. Staff help children to develop strategies they can use to manage conflict, such as when sharing and taking turns. Children play well together and respond positively to the gentle reminders from staff about boundaries and expectations.
• Leaders ensure that staff provide children with opportunities to learn about the wider community and the different beliefs that people have. They focus on helping all children to develop a sense of belonging at the nursery. Staff value the different languages that children speak and encourage them to use these in their play.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to recognise when to adapt their teaching so that all children benefit from opportunities for their play and learning to be enhanced fully
• extend the partnership working with other settings that children have previously attended to help gather comprehensive information about children's development when they start.