First Steps Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff create a welcoming, bright and friendly nursery. They invite children into the nursery each morning, with a very enthusiastic welcome. Children respond with big smiles and eagerly wave goodbye to their parents and carers. The warm and hospitable atmosphere helps children to settle quickly, ready to learn. Staff are cheerful and play with children in an energetic way. This infectious enthusiasm and humour helps to inspire children, who are keen to try hard and do their best. They have fun and enjoy their learning. Children behave well and are helpful and polite. They tidy-up toys after playing and look after books and games. Children's independence is well promoted. They locate their lunch boxes, find their names at the table and feed themselves with ease. When children require help they assertively ask, showing impressive confidence. Children are independent and self-assured.

Learning in nature is a cornerstone of this setting. A 'forest garden' enables children to explore insects, plants and learn about the natural world around them. They make bird feeders and weigh pine cones, extending their creative and mathematical skills in this unique outdoor environment. Children are empathetic and respectful. They learn these kind personal attributes through their play. For example, children recycle their waste food and learn to turn lights off when they are not needed. Children take care of their environment and understand the impact they have on the world around them. Staff have high expectations for children and incorporate challenge into their play. For example, during an obstacle course, children carefully balance and navigate their way across a bench. They are further challenged to hop and even move backwards. Children respond well to this difficult task and eventually succeed. Physical skills are well supported. Children enjoy a broad and varied curriculum and make good progress across all areas of learning.

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

• Staff, children and parents benefit from a driven and supportive senior leadership team. Leaders continually reflect and evaluate what they do. They strive to make ongoing improvements, to continually raise the quality of service for children and families.
• A robust key-person system successfully helps to foster positive relationships between children and staff. Staff are kind and gentle, in turn children are happy, relaxed and settled.
• The curriculum is firmly based on what children already know and need to learn next. Staff plan activities to build on children's knowledge and skills. Learning is carefully sequenced, and helps to support children's good progress.
• Children in this setting are safe and secure. Staff show a vigilant attitude towards safety. They frequently check to ensure that equipment is safe. For instance, after recent rain, the garden bridge is slippery. Staff restrict access to this area to prevent children from tripping. Children play in a safe space.
• Staff value children's voices and opinions. For example, children vote for their favourite book, prior to story sessions. This respectful, democratic process helps children to feel valued, building their confidence and sense of self-worth.
• Children play outside every day. Children's good health is well promoted as they experience daily fresh air and exercise.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive targeted support. Staff carefully adapt planning and activities to enable all children to participate. This is an inclusive nursery, where everyone feels important.
• Staff invest time and effort building relationships with a range of wider professionals. These include speech and language therapists, local school teachers and health visitors. Staff work closely with these professionals to meet children's unique needs. Collaboration is strong and this helps to support children's good progress.
• Children are given lots of opportunities to talk and develop their communication skills. They sing, listen to stories and enjoy conversations. For example, at lunchtime children share their thoughts, stories and experiences about the morning activities. Children are confident communicators.
• Staff attend regular training courses, above mandatory requirements. Training helps to build their skills and knowledge. However, staff do not receive frequent feedback on their practice from more experienced members of staff, to help them to develop their everyday teaching skills.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents comment staff are friendly, approachable and create a caring atmosphere for children to flourish. However, staff do not regularly share updates about children's progress with home. This means parents do not always know how best to support their children's development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• share updates of children's development and next steps with home more frequently, to enable parents and carers to better support their children's learning and impact on outcomes for children
• provide staff with more frequent feedback on their practice, to help create a culture of coaching and improve good teaching standards further.