First Learners' Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children are happy, confident and settled during their time at the inviting and friendly pre-school. Staff have a good understanding of their chosen curriculum and how to implement it effectively. They challenge children and engage them in their learning successfully. Staff build on children's interests well, and children learn about the world around them. For instance, when they explore how to 'free' frozen dinosaurs from ice, staff teach them different facts. This includes children learning the meaning of concepts such as evaporation and melting. Children are confident to discuss that ice can only freeze in temperatures below zero degrees.

Staff teach children about the importance of following good hygiene routines. Children are independent at washing their hands and understand the benefits of doing so. Staff provide all children with good opportunities to develop their physical skills. This is demonstrated when children build and negotiate their own obstacles safely, such as balancing on crates and planks of wood. All staff are positive role models. Children are polite and behave well. Children share and take turns with good levels of maturity. For example, they independently use sand timers to indicate when their time is up with a resource and kindly pass it to their friend.

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

• All staff have made significant changes since their last inspection. There is a dedicated team of staff members who work together well. The interactions and teaching that staff provide children is consistently of a high quality. Staff deploy themselves well to ensure they engage all children in good learning opportunities.
• The management and staff use additional funding to support the individual needs of children effectively. They purchase a wide range of resources to encourage balance and core muscle development.
• All staff, including management, establish positive relationships with all children. Staff know children's individual personalities well, including their likes and dislikes. This helps staff plan activities and experiences that they know will maintain children's interest and instill an excitement to learn. For example, children are excited to play interesting target games, such as tin can alley.
• All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, have a positive attitude towards their learning and make good progress. Staff support all children's needs well. This includes implementing new areas. For example, children independently access a calm space if they become overwhelmed.
• All staff establish positive partnerships with parents and keep them well informed of their children's time at the pre-school. Staff help provide children with a good consistent link between home and pre-school. For instance, staff share activity ideas, such as cutting games for children to enjoy developing their fine motor skills at home with their parents. Parents speak highly of the staff and comment that they have seen noticeable positive changes and that their hard work is incredible.
• All children have some good opportunities to be creative. For example, children can access a wide range of art equipment. However, art activities tend to be adult-directed with all end products looking similar. Therefore, children do not have opportunities to express themselves and use their own imagination and creativity more freely.
• The setting is diverse and inclusive. For example, children learn about some well-known festivals, such as Diwali. However, staff do not consistently provide children with more extensive opportunities to learn about other people's similarities and differences from around the wider world.
• Management closely monitors the quality of care and teaching that all staff provide children. They evaluate together daily and consider what has worked well and what could be done differently next time. Staff use their findings to support their future performance plans.
• All staff, including management, have attended a vast range of training beneficial to their practice to build on their knowledge and skills and improve outcomes for children. For example, staff have recently learned about the different ways to support children to develop their speaking and listening skills. As a result, staff are skilful in asking thought-provoking questions and children are confident to communicate their thoughts and ideas.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently provide children with opportunities to freely express their own creative ideas
• extend children's knowledge and understanding of other people's similarities and differences outside of their own communities and experiences.