Hopscotch Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and content at this nurturing nursery. They and their families receive warm welcomes from friendly staff as they arrive to begin their day. Staff know children's unique personalities very well and precisely plan activities and experiences that excite children. This means children are quick to immerse themselves in their play and demonstrate high levels of motivation to learn new things. Children benefit from the educational programmes that leaders and staff work hard to plan and implement. Consequently, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress in their learning.

Leaders and staff recognise the importance of promoting children's emotional well-being. They work particularly hard to build strong and trusting relationships with families and their children. For those who have recently started to attend the nursery, there is a focus on a smooth and robust settling-in process. As a result, children are very well supported to build strong emotional attachments and ultimately settle into nursery life with ease. Staff are respectful of children and provide caregiving routines with care and consideration. This supports children's personal, social and emotional development well, enabling children to feel valued as they develop a sense of belonging.

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

• All staff are dedicated in their roles and responsibilities. Leaders are passionate about, and place an emphasis on, staff well-being and continued professional development. Regular and effective supervision arrangements are in place for staff, with a focus on continuous improvement and a variety of training opportunities. This continually supports all staff to strive for the best outcomes for children.
• Staff plan and deliver a bespoke curriculum that provides children with purposeful learning across all areas of the early years foundation stage. Staff know what skills children have learned and what they want to teach them next and why. Staff understand the importance of supporting children to embed knowledge. They help children to recall previously learned information and extend this even further. As a result, children benefit from well-planned and sequenced learning that sets them up for future success.
• There are strong processes in place to support children with SEND. Leaders and staff are passionate about providing every child with the very best early education. They work in close collaboration with parents and professionals to ensure children with SEND receive the greatest support at the earliest opportunity. Staff set realistic, yet challenging, targets to enable children with SEND to make their own individual progress.
• Children's communication and language are promoted well. Younger children are exposed to purposefully modelled language and opportunities to join in with familiar stories. Staff are interactive in their expressions and gestures, which babies gravitate to. Older children's vocabulary is enriched by meaningful back- and-forth conversations as they are exposed to new words in context to broaden their vocabulary. However, there are times when staff ask children questions or provide them with information in quick succession. This does not always give children enough time to process language or enable them to respond to share their own thoughts or ideas.
• Children's healthy lifestyles are well promoted. They receive healthy meals and have an abundance of opportunities to be physically active. Staff carefully weave opportunities for children to learn about the world around them in a variety of ways. For instance, children explore life cycles through their own growing areas, and relish in regular trips into the local community. In addition, children have opportunities to learn about looking after the environment through well-considered activities and aspects of their daily routines. This broadens children's understanding of the world as they become positive members of society.
• Staff are positive role models and have high expectations of children's behaviour. Those who need extra guidance to understand their growing emotions are well supported. Consequently, children behave well and are kind to each other. However, on occasions, some staff do not provide consistent messages regarding behavioural expectations. As such, some children receive mixed messages, which confuses them. Despite this, children demonstrate high levels of engagement and are highly motivated in their learning.
• Staff empower children to develop their independence throughout the daily routines. This helps children develop confidence in their own abilities. As a result, children persist when they find something challenging. Staff are on hand to provide encouragement and guidance to help children succeed and strengthen their growing resilience.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop their teaching skills even further so that they consistently give children time to think and respond to questions
• support staff to ensure consistent messages are delivered to children in practice to strengthen their understanding of behavioural expectations.