Grassroots Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, safe and secure in this welcoming nursery. They show positive relationships with staff. Babies and toddlers sit on staff's knee when they need comfort and reassurance. Children show positive relationships with their peers. They demonstrate kindness, for example when toddlers help their friends to pick up their fallen tricycle. Pre-school children behave well and work as a team to transport water into a bucket and to pour it down a small hill in the garden. They show good imagination when they laugh with excitement and explain to staff that it is a volcano and the 'biggest eruption ever'. Children's voices are heard by staff and they contribute to making choices about the care and learning they receive. For example, staff ask pre-school children to vote for which meal they would like the following day. Children vote for which book they want staff to read them.

Staff know children well. They provide opportunities for them to make connections in their learning, such as to develop their understanding of farming. For example, when babies see a combine harvester, staff provide them with toy farm animals and name the animals they play with. Children are encouraged to recall from memory what they have previously learned. When asked, toddlers remember that staff told them that a crab moves sideways. This helps to extend children's understanding of sea creatures.

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

• Staff support children to be creative in their play. They encourage pre-school children to identify how to make patterns and to mix colours when they mix paint together on paper. Toddlers show their imagination when they use pots and pans in a play kitchen outdoors. They tell staff that they are pretending to make soup and take it in turns to put their pretend food in the toy microwave.
• Staff actively promote positive behaviour. They show children how to take turns in conversations with others. Staff give children praise for their achievements, helping to raise their self-esteem. Children are supported emotionally to understand what will happen next when the routine in the day changes. For example, staff show children a sand timer and give them a five-minute warning before it is time to tidy up the toys.
• The manager and staff provide a curriculum that supports children to be ready for their next stage of learning. This includes encouraging children to be independent. Children are supported to wash their hands prior to eating, promoting good hand hygiene practices. Staff ask children to get cups and cutlery before they sit down to eat meals.
• Overall, staff develop children's communication and language skills effectively. They talk to children when they play alongside them and sing nursery rhymes. However, occasionally, staff do not fully extend opportunities for babies to progress their speaking skills.
• Staff plan opportunities to broaden the experiences children receive at home. For example, they take children to the farm to look at and learn about how to care for animals. Children visit donkeys and chickens. They take an active role in caring for and feeding the nursery rabbits. Parents value the animal experiences that their children receive at this farm nursery.
• The manager and staff work closely with parents to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Targeted plans are put in place to promote children's individual needs. For example, staff show children pictures of different facial expressions to help them to understand how they are feeling.
• Staff generally interact well with children. However, on occasion, they do not encourage children to think critically and to try to find solutions to problems they encounter in their play. For example, when staff and children notice a piece of equipment that is wobbly, staff do not help children to think of ways to make it secure.
• Staff place a focus on supporting children to feel safe and emotionally secure when they first start attending. Children are offered plenty of settling-in sessions. This helps children to become familiar with staff and the environment before they are left for long periods away from parents.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance staff's ability to extend babies' speaking skills
• support staff to build on opportunities for children to find solutions to problems they encounter as they play.