Highway Farm Activity Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are well settled and are happy to separate from their parents on arrival. Staff know the children very well. They work effectively as a team to plan for the children's learning and development. They facilitate children's interests well through their curriculum, and provide a wide range of experiences that prepare children well for their future learning. Children's independence is promoted with self-care tasks, such as peeling their fruit and washing their own hands. Children display exceptional behaviour. They understand the rules and boundaries of the setting. Children are eager to share experiences, play cooperatively and understand concepts such as turn taking.

Children are extremely calm and relaxed in this highly nurturing environment. They receive an abundance of reassurance and cuddles from staff. This positively promotes their emotional well-being and helps to ensure they feel safe and secure. Staff sit with the children at snack time and lunchtime and children enjoy the company of each other and the staff. Children learn to take risks as they climb on the logs and gather around the fire pit. Other children demonstrate curiosity and wonder as they eagerly search the field undergrowth, looking for eggs.

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

• Staff provide a curriculum that has a positive impact on helping children to progress through the stages of learning. Children build on and remember what they already know and can do. For example, when children were exploring pond life, they remembered about the life cycle of a frog when discussing tadpoles. However, at times, children are not given enough time to think and answer questions successfully. This then results in a lack of interest and engagement from children and they wander off.
• Staff help children to learn new words. For instance, staff teach children about water simmering. However, sometimes, staff's teaching and their quality of interactions are not fully effective to extend children's learning further. For instance, staff do not make the most of opportunities for children to develop their language skills as much as possible.
• The manager and staff quickly identify children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and use their assessments to offer tailored support to help these children to make progress. They work with parents and other professionals to ensure a suitable individual curriculum is put in place. Where formal plans are needed, these are completed in time for children to move on to the next stage in their learning with the correct level of support.
• Staff foster children's personal development superbly. Children are exposed to a rich set of experiences that promote an understanding of the world around them. Staff provide exciting opportunities for children to learn about different people and their backgrounds. The management team is part of a scheme that facilitates links with schools and settings in other countries. This develops the children's understanding of other cultures, people and the world in which they live.
• Children enjoy being outside in the fresh air. They develop good physical skills as they climb, jump and balance along the wooden planks and tyres. Children develop good hand-to-eye coordination as they roll eggs down pieces of guttering. Children have an excellent understanding of how to keep themselves healthy. For example, without prompting, they know to wash their hands before meals and after using the toilet.
• Partnerships with parents are highly valued. Parents praise the quality of care and education that their children receive. They appreciate the termly 'family day' sessions that the staff offer at weekends. They comment that the nursery 'goes that extra mile' with the activities and experiences that they provide for children.
• The management team has a clear vision for the setting. They know what they expect of staff and what they want staff to teach children. However, more regular monitoring of staff practice is required to ensure that all staff know how to support children's learning and development to consistently high levels.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff development to ensure that all interactions continually focus on promoting children's language as much as possible
• continue to support staff to consistently interest and engage children in all activities.