Foundry Under Fives

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children and their families into this small, inclusive nursery. They provide a broad range of interesting learning experiences that enable children to explore and follow their interests. Children are motivated and eager to learn, and they engage readily in the activities offered.

Staff are sensitive, caring and attentive to children's personal and emotional needs. They build positive relationships with all children and, as a result, children are thriving. Staff know children extremely well and support their learning through play. For example, children develop their early writing skills as staff encourage them to draw train tracks as they play with the train set. Staff help children to learn to count as they play in the vegetable shop. Children are independent and manage their own self-care very well. They prepare their own snack by pouring milk, cutting fruit and washing up their plates.

Leaders and staff work hard to ensure that parents receive the support they need to enable children to thrive at nursery and home. They provide books and activities for children to take home. Parents comment that they feel very well supported, and are delighted with the progress their children are making.

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

• Staff plan activities that enable children to develop their knowledge and skills over time. For example, children plant potatoes and regularly observe their growth. They review what plants need to grow and make predictions about what might happen next. Children are able to recall prior learning. They make good progress in their learning and development.
• Children are confident communicators. Staff carefully assess children's language skills and expertly support their next steps. They model and extend language at a level that is appropriate to each child. Staff use sign language and visual cues extremely well to support children's communication.
• Staff provide children with lots of opportunities to develop their balance and coordination. Children climb confidently up steps and onto tyres. They use the swing independently, and accurately hit a small ball using a tennis racquet. Children have very well-developed physical skills.
• Children are developing a love of books. They are captivated as they listen to stories and enthusiastically join in conversations about them. Staff frequently read to children and use this as an opportunity to extend their vocabulary and knowledge of the world. For example, staff talk to children about fossils and their experiences at the beach.
• Children have good early literacy skills. Staff provide a range of opportunities for children to make marks with different materials. Younger children are learning to identify their name, and older children are learning to recognise sounds in words. Some children are able to write their name. However, staff provide children with less opportunities to develop and secure their knowledge of number, shape and measure.
• Children have a positive attitude towards their learning. Staff encourage them to learn through exploration. Children are happy and engaged in the range of activities inside and outside. For example, children delight in printing with potatoes and blowing bubbles. However, children are less engaged and more unsettled during whole-group sessions, particularly in the afternoon, which limits the learning taking place.
• Children are learning to manage their emotions and behaviour. Staff use different strategies to help them to do this, such as using massage to calm children when they are anxious. Older children teach the younger children to use sand timers to wait for their turn on the swing. However, on occasion, children's negative behaviour disrupts the learning of others and staff do not intervene as swiftly as they could.
• Staff and leaders offer exceptional support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They work in collaboration with families and external agencies to help children to achieve their next steps. Children have made excellent progress from their starting points.
• Staff attend training regularly. This is carefully chosen by leaders to meet the needs of the children. Staff speak with confidence about the training that they have received and how this has changed their practice. For example, recent speech and language training is helping staff to develop new strategies to support children's development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that whole-group activities meet the needs and interests of all children
• provide a broader range of opportunities for children to develop secure mathematical knowledge in number, shape and measure
• support children more consistently to understand their emotions, manage their behaviour and understand the impact it has on others.