Humpty Dumpty Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children feel safe and secure and enjoy their time at this welcoming nursery. All children make good progress from their starting points, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children in receipt of additional funding. Staff follow children's interests and next steps in learning to form a sequenced curriculum. For instance, staff encourage babies to use a spoon when feeding. Toddlers progress to using a fork, and older children include a knife, using all three cutlery tools. Older children learn how to form a queue when waiting for lunch as they would at school, to prepare them for their eventual transition.

Generally, children are well behaved and staff encourage them to share and take turns. Children enjoy working together to create 'animal families' using sand moulds. They place sea and land animals into groups and talk about their similarities and differences. Children are highly confident and independent. Babies use their senses to try and reach fruit frozen inside ice. They then enjoy tasting lemon, lime and orange once the ice has melted. Toddlers and older children enjoy a game of 'What's in the box?', where they look at a range of stimulating resources that capture their listening and attention skills.

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

• Children have daily opportunities to explore the community with staff. They enjoy visits to the train station, local shops and nearby parks. Babies learn to use sign language for key words, such as 'train'. Toddlers and older children develop good communication skills as they learn new vocabulary while out and about in the area.
• Staff morale is high. Managers support staff effectively to ensure their well-being. Recognition for their hard work, such as 'employee of the month' and an 'appreciation board', enable all staff to recognise, value and support one another in the workplace.
• Children enjoy the benefits of outdoor play. All children enjoy the opportunity for physical exercise at the start of their day. Designated play areas ensure all children can receive activities to benefit their physical development. However, the organisation of activities for older children does not always ensure that all children's learning reaches its full potential. For instance, as some children try to enjoy quieter activities, ball games and other large physical activities disturb them.
• Parents speak positively of the nursery. They comment on how supportive and helpful staff are to them as a family. They talk about the smooth transition when children move up to the next age-group room and of the 'nice to meet you' cards from their new key person. Parents comment on the strong communication about children's progress and learning opportunities to complete at home.
• Children enjoy a range of adult-led activities. Babies enjoy listening to songs, toddlers use puppets to communicate their emotions, and older children enjoy parachute games. However, inconsistent messages from staff in the pre-school room mean that children do not always understand expectations. This sometimes causes minor disputes between children as they do not know what they can and cannot do.
• Staff work closely with other professionals to ensure all children who require additional support receive this promptly. They devise strategies, such as visual cards to help children to understand daily routines. Additional funding is used effectively to provide one-to-one support for children to help them make good progress.
• Children enjoy science experiments. They guess which items will float and which will sink during a water activity. Children confidently hold each item in turn, assessing the weight and then estimating whether it will have buoyancy. They cheer with delight if they have guessed correctly.
• Staff encourage children to develop good imagination skills. They pretend to play the 'washing game' and talk about which items they will wash, such as pants, socks, shirts and dresses. They walk around in a circle to replicate the spin of a washing machine and pretend the clothes have come out 'nice and clean'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop the organisation of outdoor activities for older children to ensure learning opportunities are maximised
• ensure staff provide consistent messages to older children so that they understand what is expected of them.