Felicity's Fledglings

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have positive relationships with their key person. Staff support children's well-being and help them to feel at home in the setting. Children settle quickly and seek comfort from staff when needed. Children are happy and enjoy playing with their friends. They have access to a wide range of age-appropriate resources that reflect all areas of learning. Children have access to a small outdoor area where they enjoy developing their physical skills. For example, they use different types of bikes and play jumping games.

Staff support children to understand right from wrong. Children show positive behaviour and follow instructions from staff. Opportunities for children to have daily walks in the local community are good. Staff help children understand safety rules. Older children know the expectations and stay in a line when going on outings.

During the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, staff ensured they kept in regular contact with parents via electronic communication. Staff also provided 'home learning packs' to parents to enable them to support their children's development at home. Upon children's return, staff sensitively support children's emotional development, helping them to settle quickly.

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

• Leaders have a clear understanding of their aims and the challenges that the setting faces. They are highly inclusive and welcome all families. For example, they have effective ways of supporting families from diverse backgrounds, including those that are disadvantaged. Staff recognise the uniqueness of each child and meet their individual needs.
• The key-person system is highly effective. Staff know children extremely well and quickly identify any gaps in children's learning. Personalised plans are in place to ensure that staff tailor learning to help children make good progress.
• Staff support children well, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and children who receive additional funding. Leaders carefully monitor children's progress. They provide extra training for staff to ensure they support children effectively.
• Staff provide good opportunities for younger children to hear more words, such as spontaneously singing songs to children as they play. However, at times, staff do not extend older children's thinking skills, to help develop their communication and language further.
• Staff are positive role models for children. They encourage children to have good manners and to respect each other. Younger children show high levels of engagement in their play. However, staff do not consistently provide older children with further challenges to enable them to engage in more-purposeful play. For example, children use basic shape cutters with dough but are not encouraged to use the dough in other ways to develop their fine motor skills even more.
• Leaders have effective recruitment and induction procedures for new staff. They effectively monitor staff performance and all staff have opportunities to observe each other, encouraging them to reflect on their own practice. Coupled with the setting's self-evaluation process, leaders and staff make positive changes to benefit children.
• Staff understand children's individual care needs. Daily routines promote children's independence and self-confidence. Staff encourage children to pour their own drinks and put their shoes on.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are effective. Parents share positive feedback about the setting. They state they are happy with the regular communication they receive from staff about their children's learning and development. Parents praise leaders for supporting families during times of need.
• Staff work effectively with other childcare settings and local schools. They share information about children's needs with other settings and meet with teachers to support children with a smooth transition when they start school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen opportunities to support older children's communication and language, to extend their vocabulary and thinking skills further
• provide more challenging experiences, particularly for older children, to build on what they already know and can do.