Emmy Jayne's Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this exciting and stimulating setting. They enter with big smiles on their faces and are eager to start their day. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents do not enter the setting. However, staff help children to separate from their parents with ease and children happily greet their friends. Staff and children have excellent bonds. Children take pride in their achievements and are eager to share these with staff. They respond to the praise that they receive with smiles and cheers. Children are confident and demonstrate positive behaviour.

Children have plenty of opportunities for fresh air. They enjoy a vast range of activities in the extensive outdoor areas. This supports children who prefer to learn outside very well. Babies explore sensory activities, such as sand, rice and water. Children are eager to explore the garden and use large play equipment. This helps to develop their large-muscle skills well. Older children learn about how to care and look after plants. They confidently discuss how they planted an apple seed, and it has started to grow 'shoots'. Children are very independent. Young children peel and chop fruit with the support of staff. Older children mix ingredients to make play dough. They excitedly follow simple recipe cards. Children confidently discuss the changes in the dough mixture as they add ingredients.

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

• Children show a love for books and reading. Staff read stories to older children with enthusiasm. They use props and ask children to predict what might happen next. Babies sit cuddled up with staff to listen to their favourite stories. Staff regularly take children to visit the local library. They have developed a lending library, to encourage parents to share books with their children at home. This helps to support children's literacy skills.
• Staff are very caring, sensitive and nurturing. They respond to children's needs. For instance, babies who are unsettled are quickly provided with cuddles and reassurance. Staff use their knowledge of behaviour management to help children to resolve conflicts. For example, staff support older children to discuss what has upset them. They consider with their friends how they could resolve the problem. Children of all ages learn the difference between right and wrong. Children display excellent levels of emotional development.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language skills well. Children enjoy singing songs and rhymes, and quickly learn and join in with repetitive phrases. Staff enthusiastically engage children in conversations and support them to hear new vocabulary. For example, staff introduce words, such as 'cream of tartar', as children mix ingredients to make play dough. Staff ask children questions to extend their vocabulary. However, occasionally, staff ask questions too quickly, and they do not give children enough time to answer.
• The passionate leadership team thinks carefully about how to support the well-being of staff. It considers the workload of staff to ensure that this is manageable for them. The morale among the staff is high. They work well as a team, and they speak respectfully to each other. Staff comment that they feel well supported.
• Staff regularly observe and assess children's development. They quickly identify children who may have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff take swift action to help families access relevant services from other agencies. This helps to ensure that children with a specific need are appropriately supported. Staff work closely with other professionals to develop support plans. This means that children make the best possible progress from their starting points in learning.
• Staff work very closely with parents. During the pandemic, they developed the use of an online system. This has allowed effective communication between parents and staff. Staff keep parents up to date with their children's development. They provide parents with suggestions of activities to carry out at home. Parents are extremely positive about the setting. They comment that they 'could not be happier' and that the setting goes 'above and beyond'.
• Generally, staff demonstrate a consistently good level of teaching. They promote children's independence and provide praise and encouragement. For example, staff encourage children to persevere when using scissors. However, on occasions, staff allow more-confident children to dominate an activity, which means quieter and less-confident children do not get the same learning opportunities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's questioning techniques, so that they give children time to respond to questions and develop their critical thinking skills
• support staff to identify the quieter children to make sure that they have the same learning experiences as the more-confident children.