Early Years Bannerman Road

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for children and their families. Children arrive happily, settle in quickly and are familiar with the daily routine. There is a real sense of community at this setting, where staff and parents value, respect and understand one another. This helps to support children in developing a sense of belonging and security.

Leaders and staff have high expectations for all children. Most children who attend the setting live in homes where English is an additional language. Staff are dedicated to ensuring that all children get the best possible start. They provide an inclusive learning environment and work effectively as a team to ensure all children reach their full potential. Children make good progress and gain the necessary skills for their future learning.

The setting has remained open during the pandemic for vulnerable children and children of key workers to attend. Staff have maintained a two-way flow of communication with all families, including carrying out doorstop visits to provide additional resources for families, where needed. Since the setting has fully reopened to all children, the staff team continue to remain focused on supporting children's social needs and emotional well-being.

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

• Children's early mathematical skills have been a priority learning focus since the last inspection. During this inspection, children were observed engaging in water play outdoors where staff introduced mathematical concepts about measure and volume. Staff used this opportunity well to introduce mathematical language, such as 'full' and 'heavy'. They asked challenging questions to extend children's thinking. Although, at times, the pace of questioning meant that some children did not have sufficient time to consider their thoughts before responding.
• There is a strong emphasis on promoting children's language and communication skills throughout the daily routine. Staff make effective use of teaching aids, such as visual timetables and sign language, to help children understand what is happening next. All children learn to follow instructions well and show good levels of attention and focus. They sit down with staff during group circle time, where they confidently take turns to pick out an item from a bag before identifying the animal's name and mimicking its sound.
• Staff know how to identify and meet children's individual learning needs effectively. For example, they offer a focused 'bucket time' activity to help build children's attention, listening and eye contact. Children engage well during this activity and show excitement as staff place colourful beads into a transparent plastic tube before gently moving them up and down to capture their attention.
• Staff offer consistent praise and encouragement, which helps to motivate children and promote their self-confidence.
• Staff encourage children to be independent in managing their personal care from the outset. Children learn to eat and drink independently, and they hang up their coats by locating their photograph on their coat peg. Children demonstrate effective social skills. They sit down for snack time with other children and show good manners when asking staff for more fruit. Staff are good role models and provide clear behaviour expectations, such as reminding children not to run indoors when they become excited to collect their coats for outdoor play.
• Leaders have made positive changes since their last inspection. They have improved the quality of support for all staff to ensure they understand their role fully. As a result, staff know how to complete ongoing assessments of children's learning and make effective use of these to plan children's next steps in learning. Leaders continue to evaluate the quality of the setting. However, they have placed less focus on improving the provision for children to explore everyday technology compared to other areas of learning.
• Parents are highly complimentary about the setting. The comment positively about how their children are happy and enjoy attending. Staff provide regular updates to parents about their children's progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• allow children sufficient time to process new information, share their thoughts and respond to questions
• provide further opportunities for children to explore a broad range of technology and understand its use and purpose.