Gummy Bears Nursery and Out of School Club @ Hilltop

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, settled and confident learners in this nursery. They have secure bonds with caring key staff, who support children to settle. Children demonstrate good behaviour throughout the nursery, and staff model positive behaviour well. When children demonstrate unwanted behaviour, staff successfully manage the situation, encouraging older children to talk about how the behaviour makes them feel. Following this, children happily continue playing together.

Children are engaged in their learning and show high levels of concentration. For example, in the pre-school room, children take part in role play, developing their own storyline and narrative. Children are encouraged to take their own risks in a safe environment. For example, babies are encouraged to walk down the steps to access the outdoor provision, while older children explore balancing on planks. Staff regularly praise children's learning and show excitement and joy in children's achievements.

Key persons know their children very well, both through their own observations and through information gained from parents. They promote children's learning and next steps in development through individual planning alongside generic next steps for the room. Staff take children's interests into consideration.

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

• Staff provide supportive settling-in and transition periods, which helps children to settle exceptionally well. Key staff are on hand to support children and speak to parents. Parents are happy with how their children settle and how staff support their children.
• Children's behaviour is excellent. Children are confident and happy learners, and they play alongside each other in a secure environment. Parents report that their children's behaviour is good and they have noticed positive changes in their children's behaviour since they started to attend the setting.
• Staff use books, songs and rhymes well to support children's learning. For example, in the toddler room, staff sing about minibeasts to support children's learning. Children excitedly join in. Later, staff share a book about minibeasts and introduce new vocabulary. Staff model how to use books, and older children actively engage in sharing books, talking about what they can see. Babies access books outside, and staff plan their learning around key words.
• The manager has implemented new procedures to ensure that staff have supervision sessions to develop their performance. Staff take part in regular staff meetings, where information is shared and next steps are discussed. They undertake further training around areas of development.
• Children access a variety of learning opportunities outside that help to develop their gross motor skills. For example, older children make a model using crates. Other children make an obstacle course using planks.
• All children make good progress. Where there are concerns around children's learning or behaviour, staff are aware of how to manage this and liaise with parents. Staff know how to refer to outside agencies if needed.
• The manager has a good understanding of next steps for the setting. She speaks passionately about improvements she wants to make to improve education and the provision and changes that she has already made to the setting.
• Key persons know their key children very well. Parents speak very highly of the staff and the support that is given. Key persons plan individual next steps in development for their key children and enthusiastically talk about these. This helps them to identify children's progress and what they need to learn next. However, this information is not always shared with other staff in the room, to enable them to support children's next steps in learning.
• Most staff model language and introduce children to new vocabulary. For instance, toddlers are excited when they find a minibeast in the outdoor provision, and staff introduce the name of the minibeast. They provide a narrative about the minibeast, asking open-ended questions and talking about what they notice. Staff support older children in the sand area, introducing the word 'sieve' and encouraging children to think what this may be used for. However, staff working with babies ask questions rather than providing a narrative or introducing new vocabulary to help them to learn new words.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff working with babies to provide a narrative for them as they are playing, to model and introduce new vocabulary
• support staff, other than a child's key person, to know children's next steps in learning.