Headstart Day and Afterschool Care LTD

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have strong bonds with their key person and develop good relationships with their peers. They are greeted with warm cuddles and provided with lots of praise and encouragement throughout the day. Children happily share and take turns with each other. Younger children roll a ball back and forth between each other, smiling and clapping when they are successful. Older children sit together at the lunch table, helping one another serve the food onto their plates.

There is a a wide range of resources accessible to children, and they explore their environment well. They play with real food in the role-play area, and have conversations about where the food comes from and what it looks like. Children are introduced to healthy eating through discussions about the ingredients in their food. They use some of these healthy ingredients in their role-play areas. Staff explain how food can change when it is cooked. For example, they discuss how potatoes can make chips or mash.

Children show real enjoyment when they are playing. Younger children have fun exploring the 'cornflour play', putting their hands in and clapping their hands together to see how they stick. Children enjoy dancing and singing songs with musical instruments throughout the day. Older children learn to mix paints together. They ask staff what colours they can make and experiment with mixing and adding new colours.

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

• Children engage well with staff and their environment. Staff enjoy reading and singing with children. Older children re-enact stories they have previously read to other children and staff. They repeat phrases and actions from the story with real excitement.
• Staff plan activities that focus on children's previous experiences, and help to extend their learning further. For example, children learn about different seasons, such as autumn. They recall how they saw some fireworks. When they talk about summer, children say that they have been to the beach and that they went on an aeroplane. Staff ask questions to challenge children's learning, however, they do not always allow time for children to think and respond.
• Children follow the nursery's 'golden rules', which help to set behaviour expectations. They remind one another of the rules and talk about 'kind hands' and say that 'sharing is caring'. Children happily hold hands and take turns throughout the day.
• During mealtimes, children show good independence as they feed themselves. However, they sometimes have to wait for long periods of time before and after they have their meal, and they become restless and unsettled.
• The special educational needs and disabilities coordinator has a deep understanding of how to support individual children. He works closely with staff, parents and health agencies, to ensure that children with additional needs are well supported and make progress. The sensory room enables children to have a quiet, one-to-one time with their key person when required.
• The management team have a clear focus on ensuring staff's well-being is supported. There is a 'well-being champion' in place, and staff can freely access guidance and support when needed. Staff have regular meetings with managers to discuss children's progress and any training opportunities they wish to pursue. Staff comment that they feel well supported by the management team.
• Staff plan activities to celebrate a range of festivals. They ask parents for any information about what they celebrate at home. Some parents have shared the food they eat with the children, which helps to support their learning about cultural differences.
• Staff develop good relationships with parents. They keep parents updated with information about what their children are learning and what they are working on next. They encourage parents to send in photos of what their children have been enjoying at home. Staff use this to extend their learning further at the nursery.
• Parents speak highly of the staff. They feel fully informed about what their children are learning and how to develop their skills further at home. Parents comment that staff are 'polite and welcoming' and 'are brilliant role models who put children's needs first'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's interactions with children and ensure they allow children time to think and respond
• improve the organisation of routines, with particular reference to the time before and after meals, so that the length of time children spend waiting is reduced.