Footsteps Nursery Canwell

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create valuable learning experiences for children to explore, both indoors and outdoors. They make particularly good use of the outdoor learning spaces to support children's learning across the seven areas. Babies build strength in their legs as they stand to access resources, such as water play. Pre-school children use their imagination in the outdoor role-play kitchen.

The manager and staff support children's physical development well. They provide a good range of opportunities for children to develop their large- and small-muscle movements and to develop a sense of adventure. Children enjoy moving forwards, back and round on a swing attached to a tree. They develop an awareness of the space around them as they negotiate obstacle courses. Children build their hand strength as they squash and pull dough. They then use tools to shape the dough.

Staff establish clear rules and boundaries with children. Children travel around the nursery sensibly and understand about the safe routes across the car park to access one of the outdoor areas. They have good manners and understand the expectations at mealtimes, such as sitting down to eat with their friends. Staff are kind and caring, and children form close attachments with them. Children benefit from a consistent key person which further supports their attachments.

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

• Leaders have a positive and continuous approach to making ongoing improvements. They frequently review and enhance their policies and procedures to benefit the children. For example, the manager has recently refined the induction arrangements for new staff to ensure they fully understand their roles and responsibilities. There is a strong leadership team in place to provide continuity for the care of children in the manager's absence.
• Leaders ensure that each member of staff is supported well in their role and consider their well-being. Many of the staff are long-term members of the team and benefit from effective coaching and support from the manager as part of the routine monitoring system. Leaders provide staff with regular training to extend their professional skills even further. When staff move rooms, they receive training specific to the development stage of the children they are working with.
• The manager has a secure understanding of child development and uses this to lead staff in their curriculum. This includes a strong focus on the use of books, songs and rhymes to support children's communication skills and early literacy. Toddlers show a particular interest in books. They concentrate as they explore a book for themselves and turn the pages. Staff engage toddlers in the stories, and children enjoy lifting the flaps to reveal animals. They make the animals' sounds and understand that the pictures have meaning.
• Staff know children well and, overall, plan effectively for their learning. For example, staff working with babies identify key words to focus on to help the babies learn. However, staff do not make full use of their observations of babies' and children's achievements to plan individualised learning experiences for them. This means that staffs' teaching is not focused as well as possible on helping each individual child to make the best possible progress.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive excellent support. The special educational needs coordinator makes timely referrals and liaises with parents, staff and health professionals to implement children's development plans.
• Overall, most children are motivated to learn. Pre-school children make choices about whether to join in a letter hunt in the outdoor area or choose from the wide range of exciting learning opportunities on offer. However, staff working with the younger children follow routines too strictly and do not recognise when children want to make their own choices about where and what they play. On occasions, this leads to some children wandering, and they are not as focused in their play and learning.
• Parents are pleased with the service provided at the nursery. They say how staff really listen to them and keep them fully informed about their child's learning, routines and day-to-day care. The manager values the partnership working with parents and organises many opportunities for them to be included in their child's education. Parents appreciate the diligence that staff place on managing children's allergies.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use observations of children's achievements to focus teaching and planning more precisely on children's individual learning needs
• increase opportunities for the younger children to make decisions and lead their own play so they can be fully engaged in their learning.