Giant Steps Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending this calm and welcoming nursery. They are happy and content, and show how secure they feel as they interact confidently with the caring staff. Children build strong relationships with each other and are good at sharing and taking turns. For example, they wait patiently for their go at choosing an item from the song bag. Children are interested in the activities and resources and are motivated to learn. They make independent choices about their play and focus well on activities. For example, babies enjoy repeatedly looking at their reflection in a mirror wall and exploring the texture of shells. Older children work out how to roll balls down a guttering structure and ably rebuild it when it comes apart.

Staff have high expectations for all children and effectively support their development in all areas of learning. They use what they know about each child to plan and provide a varied range of interesting resources and activities. This helps all children to make good progress from their initial starting points. Staff provide an attractive and interesting environment, which supports children's learning. For example, children have easy access to varied resources which are stored at low level and have good opportunities to explore natural materials. Each room has its own carefully planned outdoor space, which gives children additional learning opportunities as well as the chance to develop their physical skills. Children have been taking part in a gardening award scheme, which helps them learn about growth and nature. Staff are hoping to involve the local community in this scheme.

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

• Staff know the children well. They work closely with parents to establish each child's starting points and carefully monitor children's progress as they move up through the nursery. They confidently describe the progress individual children have made and what they do next to continue to make good progress. Staff use this information to provide tailored support for each child's learning.
• The provision in the baby room is particularly strong. The dedicated, long-serving staff work together seamlessly. They genuinely care about the babies and build strong bonds with them. This helps the babies to be settled and content. Staff interact well with the babies and are skilled at introducing new language as they talk to them and support their play. For example, when a baby picks up a shell the member of staff describes how it feels and introduce the word 'bumpy.' The staff offer the babies lots of encouragement for learning new skills and can identify when older babies need more challenge. For example, they take them through to the outdoor area for toddlers, when they have finished exploring their own outdoor space.
• Children of all ages are confident; they move around and make choices with assurance. They seek the support of staff as necessary but also feel secure enough to play and learn independently. They are interested by visitors to the nursery and confidently engage with them. Children behave well. They listen to staff and follow instructions promptly. They show respect for one another, taking turns during activities and sharing resources.
• Children develop good communication skills. Babies have a particularly good start and, across the rest of the nursery, staff provide effective support for children's emerging language skills. They talk with children as they play, introducing new vocabulary and encouraging conversations.
• The owner/manager is skilled and knowledgeable. She knows parents and children well and ensures that they receive a warm welcome in a friendly environment. She has built an effective staff team and is supportive of their well-being. Although she observes staff practice regularly, monitoring and coaching are not currently sharply focused enough to move staff's teaching skills to a higher level.
• Parents report high levels of satisfaction with the nursery. They describe staff as trustworthy and approachable. They feel well informed about their children's development and describe the good progress they have made. This is particularly the case with children's personal, social and emotional development.
• Teaching is good. However, there is some variation in the quality. Not all staff have an in-depth understanding of how to move children's learning on to the next level and some do not extend children's learning as fully as possible.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop further the monitoring and coaching of staff to ensure even more effective teaching and greater consistency in meeting the learning needs of individual children.