Jack and Jill Pre-School Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are excited as they arrive at the nursery, and most of them separate well from their parents at the door. Staff are on hand to greet children and reassure those younger children who are new to the nursery environment. Great care is taken to address children's anxiety, and staff provide comfort and reassurance during these early days at nursery. Staff form close bonds with their key children. They use what they know about the children's interests to engage children in play. This, along with comforters from home, supports children's emotional well-being, and they become settled and secure in the environment. Children show kindness to each other. Older siblings quickly recognise any distress and respond with cuddles to soothe younger ones. Staff are good role models. They teach children simple rules to enable children to understand how their behaviour affects others. As a result, children begin to show tolerance and respect for others. Children make nice friendships with each other.

The curriculum is ambitious and focuses primarily on the prime areas. As children's learning develops, staff introduce the specific areas. Staff challenge what children know and can do. This provides a baseline for what children need to learn next so that they can make the best possible progress in their learning.

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

• The senior team provides staff with regular supervision, training and support. Training days focus on specific mandatory training, such as paediatric first aid. Weekly information from external agencies is shared with staff to keep their knowledge up to date around any local issues. This provides staff with the information and skills they need to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively. Staff feel valued. However, the majority of training is online, and it does not always take full account of those who prefer to learn in other ways.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive very good support. Staff's assessment of children, along with information from parents, is used to develop a detailed record of each child's development stage. This supports the team to make early identification of any gaps in children's attainment. The team is quick to invoke early action. They develop individual plans for each child's learning to target the areas where children need support to make the best possible progress.
• Younger children have access to play, both indoors and outdoors. Staff are warm and nurturing. They are quick to respond to children's emerging needs. The pace is very much child led. Outdoors, children develop their large muscles as they climb and negotiate the steps to the slide. They follow simple rules to keep themselves safe. Children smile and laugh as they say 'ready, steady, go', and move down the slide confidently. Staff are mindful of children's health and personal care needs. Children begin to gain some independence as they wipe their noses with tissues themselves.
• Children's language is a high priority, and teaching has a sharp focus on children's vocabulary. Staff continually talk and sing with younger children to encourage their emerging speech. Older children enjoy small-group times. The skilled staff use puppets to engage and maintain children's interest. Children become enthralled with the characters as they listen and take turns to practise their word formation and repeat more complex rhyming sentences. Staff teach them to use their tongue to form letter sounds correctly. This raises the quality of children's speech rapidly.
• Children are confident and inquisitive. They use what they know and apply this to their learning. Children use paint to make vegetable prints. They explore their senses, touching and smelling the different vegetables. Children look with staff at the pips from the apple and recognise these grow on the trees outside. Staff remind children about safety when using a knife. Children begin to build their understanding of simple mathematics. They count during story times and other activities using their fingers. However, teaching does not yet fully support children to recognise that all numerals have a value from zero.
• Partnerships with parents are very good. Parents speak highly about the care, support and education their children receive. They say that the nursery has a 'homely feel'. Communication is very good, and the nursery shares activities that parents can carry on with at home to support their children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase children's awareness of numerals even further to include the use of zero
• consider the varied learning styles of the team to further support their ongoing professional development.