Fennies St Augustines

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and settle quickly. Staff take the time to find out how children have been at home. They successfully use this to plan for the day. Older children thoroughly enjoy choosing what they wish to play and explore, making their own planning boards. This helps to support children's independence and school readiness. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported. They receive tailored care and support, helping them to make good progress with their learning and development.

Children of all ages enjoy exploring in the garden. Older children make walkways with crates and learn how to balance as they walk over them. Children learn how to use the water feature to pump water to make it work. They work together to move the levers and catch the water, moving it to the pipes. This helps to support their problem-solving skills. They also learn and remember the importance of turn-taking and sharing. Children behave well. However, at times, younger children do not always have the opportunity to learn how to take risks as they are guided away from certain play areas.

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

• New leaders have a strong ethos for the nursery which is shared by staff. They are all fully aware of learning intentions and how to successfully implement the curriculum. Regular training and audits help staff to reassess how to implement the curriculum, making sure children are able to progress with their learning.
• Staff know children well. They effectively plan activities to support children's learning and development. All children make good progress, and any gaps are narrowed.
• Quieter children are not always brought into group activities by staff. Although children participate, they do not have opportunities to extend their learning as more vocal children take staffs attention.
• Staff feel well supported by leaders in the nursery. They are given plenty of opportunities to attend training, helping them to enhance their knowledge of early years and the curriculum.
• All staff are consistent in their approach to behaviour management. Recent training has helped staff to support children to use their words as they play and to share how they are feeling. Children behave well.
• The quality of education is good. All staff are aware of children's next steps. They effectively use these to plan activities to progress children's learning and development.
• Children enjoy learning about size and volume. Staff teach children new words as they fill up different sized containers, such as 'larger than', 'more than' and 'less than', helping children to learn mathematical language.
• Older children show great excitement when learning new languages. They recall familiar words in Spanish when asked how they are. They enjoy joining in with songs, remembering what they have been taught.
• Children of all ages are nurtured well. They receive cuddles of reassurance when it is needed. Staff take time to settle in new children, finding out about likes and dislikes and using this effectively to help them gain confidence in their new surroundings.
• Children explore sand play. They eagerly move water to the sand to watch how the consistency changes. Staff are quick to adapt the activity and ask effective questions, helping children to think about what they are doing and the changes they notice.
• Children of all ages have access to family books and boxes. Children sit with staff talking about differences with families and communities. This helps children to learn about the wider community in which they live.
• Floor books help children to look back on activities recalling what they have learned. They talk about what they learned and read through the captions. This further supports children's emerging literacy development.
• Toddlers enjoy learning how to problem-solve. Staff teach them that their actions of moving their hands in the water, makes new bubbles. Children also learn names of sea creatures that they are playing with. This further supports children's language development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staffs understanding of how to promote risk-taking, in particular with younger children
• support staff to identify quieter children and build on their confidence to speak out during group activities.