Hextable Village Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children excitedly run into nursery to start their day. They have strong attachments with the whole staff team. Children seek out staff to join in their games, and they smile and laugh happily as they play together. This helps them feel settled and secure in the nursery.

Children have access to a wide range of carefully planned resources, which supports their learning in all areas of development. The curriculum is sequenced to ensure that children's learning is well supported. This helps children make good progress in the nursery's care. Mathematics is woven into everyday activities. For example, staff introduce positional language, such as 'on', 'under' and 'in'. They count out loud, encouraging children to copy. Staff help children recognise numbers, shapes and sizes as they play.

Staff support children to develop their physical skills. They use tools to manipulate dough and smooth sand over toy bricks. Children enjoy spending time outside. They access the water tap to fill containers and pour down pipes and guttering in the outdoor area.

Staff are calm as they engage with children. They model good behaviour and use gentle reminders when supporting children to share and take turns. Staff refer to the 'rules', using visual cues to help children's understanding. This helps to encourage children to behave well.

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

• Leaders and staff create a clear curriculum that prioritises children developing their independence, communication and social skills, which supports children to be ready for future learning. They focus on self-help skills, such as teaching children to dress themselves, to wipe their own noses and effective handwashing techniques. They explain to children the importance of these skills, which builds on children's understanding of good hygiene practices.
• For children in need of some additional support, staff use speech and language programmes to focus their teaching and help children to quickly catch up. For example, staff use early identification and intervention tools, as well as simple sign language, to support children. This has led to improvements in children's speech.
• Staff monitor children's progress closely. This helps them identify and address any emerging gaps in children's development swiftly. Leaders use additional funding well to benefit those who need additional support. For example, they use a speech and language therapist to develop children's communication skills. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities
• (SEND), make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff do not organise routines over lunchtime in the most effective way. Although children behave well overall, as other children arrive and transition into the afternoon, children are not fully engaged or supported. Consequently, during this time, some children flit between activities with lower levels of engagement. For instance, children become restless and run around while other children are still eating.
• Partnerships with parents and families are very positive. Many parents return to the nursery with siblings. They comment highly on the kind, caring and passionate staff. For example, the parents enjoy organising events with staff, such as the annual fair for families to join in. Parents appreciate the regular progress updates they receive from their child's key person. This helps parents understand what their children will be learning next.
• The nursery works closely with the local school. Staff prepare children by visiting the school to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings. They share children's learning and development with teachers. This helps children make a smooth transition to school.
• Overall, staff support children to be healthy. For instance, staff provide children with healthy snacks and provide parents with advice on positive lunch box options. However, this is not yet fully embedded to support children or parents to make good choices around eating healthily. For example, parents providing healthy choices at lunch for children is not always consistent.
• The provider has an ethos of empowering staff and providing good-quality training. Staff value the support, guidance and coaching they receive from knowledgeable leaders. There is a high focus on upskilling and developing staff's teaching skills and supporting their well-being. For example, staff have undertaken training on outdoor learning and used their knowledge to enhance learning experiences for children in a nearby woodland area. This promotes the continuous development of the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• organise transitions between routines effectively, particularly at lunchtimes, so that children are fully supported in their learning
• strengthen strategies to support children and their families to make healthy choices in relation to food and drinks.