Flowerpots

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and have enjoyable and valuable play and learning experiences. They have warm and affectionate attachments with staff and demonstrate they feel emotionally secure. Children make good progress and thrive because staff have high expectations of them. They show a positive attitude to learning and are motivated to explore and investigate the stimulating learning environment. For example, older children enjoy spending time in the outdoor area, where they record the various birds that come to visit. Toddlers develop their small hand muscles as they pinch, squeeze and roll the play dough. Babies enjoy the sensation of the water as they fill and empty the various containers. They show excitement as they pull objects out of the song bag and happily copy the actions of the song.

Older children demonstrate a high level of confidence. They proudly show the inspector around the nursery. Children talk knowledgeably about the books that they have enjoyed and show what they have remembered. For example, they announce that a baby owl is called an owlet. Older children experiment, predict and compare the different colours they create as they mix paint together. Children's physical development is well supported. They are developing good coordination as they drink from open beakers and skilfully use cutlery at mealtimes to feed themselves.

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

• Leaders and staff support children's early learning and development well. They decide the most important knowledge that they want children to learn during their time in the nursery. The curriculum plans set out the order in which children need to learn this important knowledge. This ensures that children build up their learning securely and remember it well.
• Staff have a strong focus on nurturing children's personal, social and emotional development. Children are helped to self-regulate their emotions. They learn about how to be kind to others. Children also learn about the importance of caring for living things and the environment. During the inspection, children asked for their bird feeder to be put back on the tree so that the birds could find it.
• Children enjoy listening to stories on their own with their key person, or as part of a group. They handle books with care and some children are beginning to understand that print carries meaning. Staff use books well to develop other areas of learning. For example, while listening to 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', children develop their mathematical knowledge of size and ordering numbers. During storytelling sessions, staff introduce new, exciting words and phrases, such as 'magnificent' and 'nervous', to help develop children's vocabulary.
• All children learn to behave well, work independently and share resources. They respond well because staff are good role models. There is an emphasis on thinking about and including 'our friends'. Children respond well to the high expectations of staff.
• Children access a learning environment which is well resourced. Play materials are of good quality and are readily available to the children. This allows children to make independent choices about their learning and play. There is a good balance of adult-directed activities and child-initiated play.
• Staff pay good attention to promoting children's health and well-being, overall. Lunchtime is well managed, where all children sit down and eat a hot and nutritious meal. However, staff do not always help children to understand the reasons why they need to wipe their nose or wash their hands to keep themselves healthy.
• Leaders manage and support staff well-being. Staff say they enjoy working at the nursery. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on staffing levels, leaders have been required to work in ratio directly with the children. This has limited the opportunities for them to provide staff with supervision meetings that help them to set targets to enhance staff's ongoing professional development.
• Parents praise the nursery and the positive impact it has had on their children's development. They value the information they receive about how their children are progressing and what they are interested in. They say their children have progressed well in their speech and have become much more confident and sociable since starting at the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and improve the arrangements for staff supervision to help enhance, even further, a culture of support and ongoing professional development
• support children to develop clearer connections between hygiene practices, such as nose blowing and handwashing, and the reasons why they are important, to keep themselves healthy.