Fernbees

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive and are excited to play and interact with their friends, demonstrating they feel safe and happy in their environment. They confidently walk into the nursery and greet the warm and welcoming staff. Children eagerly join in with the wide range of activities offered and enjoy their time at the setting. They show high levels of engagement in activities of their own choosing. For example, younger children enjoy exploring the different textures in the underwater sensory tray.

Children access a range of rich experiences, allowing them to further develop their understanding of the world around them. They positively engage in regular interactions with the residents in the on-site residential care home. Staff are good role models. They have high expectations for children's behaviour and conduct. Children are very respectful of their friends and staff. They play well together and share resources. Pre-school children show high levels of confidence in social situations. For example, they ask visitors why they are attending their nursery.

Staff successfully help all children to develop the skills they need for the future. They confidently offer experiences that build on what children already know and can do. Children demonstrate a positive attitude to their learning and make good progress from their starting points, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

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

• Staff promote kindness and teach children about similarities and differences within their local community. Children develop positive relationships as they take joy in their regular visits to the on-site residential care home where they take part in a range of activities with the residents and sing songs together. These visits help children to develop a sense of kindness and how to promote respect for different people.
• Support for children with SEND is very good. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) is proactive in identifying emerging gaps in learning at the earliest stage. The SENCo engages with parents to gain their approval to seek specialist support, which also promotes effective partnership working. Therefore, all children receive the support they need to make progress in line with their abilities.
• The provider has good partnerships with other agencies. They work effectively with the local authority and health services with regard to specialist support for children with SEND. As a result, all children make good progress in their learning and development.
• Staff support children's communication and language throughout the nursery.
• They get down to the babies' level as they play and make good eye contact. Babies babble away and staff respond with encouraging words, which helps to promote the early stages of communication. Older children learn more complex words, such as 'nectar' and 'honeycomb', as they are immersed in the story 'Bee'. However, staff do not always follow the leaders' ethos and do not support children to remove dummies. This means, at times, babies are unable to practise speaking to make the very best progress in their language development.
• Children have plenty of opportunities to learn about the community they live in. They are developing a sense of identity and their place in the wider community and world. They regularly visit the local library and parks and welcome visitors to the nursery. As a result, they broaden their knowledge about people who help us and about a range of celebrations and festivals.
• Staff feel well supported. They have regular supervision sessions with the manager, where further training is identified. For example, all staff have attended training to support the curriculum for communication and language. Staff now regularly use British Sign Language to support children with their communication skills. This supports the team to continue to develop in their practice. Children benefit from meaningful interactions with adults.
• Parents are pleased with the care their children receive and the progress they are making. They are particularly happy with the support they receive from all staff and the regular feedback provided about their children's day and the progress they are making. Parents also like the online parent app that is used, which means they can access information at any time of the day. As a result, parents continue to support children's learning further at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to implement the curriculum for communication and language consistently so that children make the very best progress in their language development.