First Steps Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are enthusiastic, motivated learners who flourish from the care and learning opportunities staff provide to support their development. The newly implemented curriculum is ambitiously designed. Leaders thoughtfully work with local schools to select educational programmes that deliver their curriculum effectively. For example, children join in with daily literacy sessions that build phonological awareness. They learn rhymes, sounds and visuals of letters in the alphabet through games that provide familiarity when children transition to school. Staff skilfully deliver this well, both playfully and energetically helping children to have a go and keep on trying to meet important milestones in their learning and development.

Leaders deploy staff well. Children have ample support during the day to meet their needs. For example, during mealtimes, staff sit with children and have meaningful conversations and read books. Staff are attentive and actively promote children's independence, helping them to cut their own fruit and serve their own lunch. Children show great delight when eating their freshly prepared, nutritious meals. Staff teach children how to make healthy choices. Consequently, children learn how to keep their bodies healthy.

Staff are excellent role models, demonstrating positive and respectful relationships. For example, staff help children understand when it is time to change their nappy, always ensuring they have their consent first. This helps children to build strong bonds with staff and makes them feel safe and secure. Consequently, children gain confidence and actively participate in hygiene routines.

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

• Leaders show an unwavering commitment to their staff team. They prioritise staff development and provide them with opportunities to engage in projects such as 'maths champions'. This helps staff deliver the knowledge and skills children need to know more and remember more. For example, during small-group times, children learn number songs and rhymes, and staff help children to recognise a numeral of the week. They use consistent language such as 'show them and grow them' when exploring the quantity of the chosen numeral. Children delightfully count their fingers to match the numeral shown by staff. Children securely make progress in mathematics.
• Staff excellently model music and movement routines that they have designed to promote children to make marks. Children copy the movements modelled by staff, holding small squares of material as they dance. Children carefully fold the material when they have finished and then apply the movements they practise onto paper using chunky crayons. Consequently, children develop the muscle strength and patterns of movement to help them develop their early writing skills.
• Children are very competent when using balance bikes. They learn to manoeuvre around obstacles with ease. Staff praise children as they manage risks safely as they ride. Children learn to balance and develop their spatial awareness as they experiment with different slopes and speeds.
• Staff consistently promote positive behaviour and support children's emotional well-being. They sensitively encourage children to rest or sleep in a peaceful environment, helping them to fall asleep. This helps children to listen to the needs of their bodies and helps them to regulate throughout the day. Staff are attentive to sleeping children, staying with them while they sleep to ensure their safety.
• Leaders organise trips beyond the setting to provide children with excellent firsthand opportunities to learn about nature, animals and how to care for them. For example, children visit local farms and the nearby shop to buy fruit and vegetables. This helps children to understand the world around them and learn about their community.
• Children giggle as they share books together, learning new vocabulary related to space exploration. They access trays of rice and toy spaceships to promote them to talk through play. Children share how they land their 'spaceship' on the moon. Staff place a high priority on identifying children most in need of interventions and implement targeted, playful activities within a language-rich environment. However, weaknesses in assessment mean, at times, some children are not identified quickly enough, and this impacts their progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop assessment procedures to provide early intervention for children to support their communication skills.