Jack and Jill's Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to attend this setting and display a positive attitude to learning. They form strong relationships with the staff, who support children's emotional well-being, self-esteem and resilience. Children are very familiar with the established routines. For example, as soon as children arrive at the setting, they proudly find their name tags and post them in a letter box, showing good reading skills.

Children navigate with interest and ease around the setting, choosing activities that spark their curiosity and excitement. For example, they enjoy pretending to be vets in the home corner. Children use their previous experiences to engage in role play with their peers, which helps them to strengthen their social interactions. In addition, they learn more about being caring and affectionate towards pets and living things.

Children enjoy exploring the messy room, where they have meaningful opportunities to investigate and mix different coloured paints. They learn that mixing red and blue makes purple. As a result, children feel proud and accomplished. Children enjoy carrying out small responsibilities around the setting. They help the staff tidy up before snack time. This helps to boost their self-esteem and confidence. Staff support children's early writing skills through exciting activities. For example, when out in the garden, children use chalk to make marks on the blackboard and ascribe meanings to them.

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

• Staff offer a rich environment with plenty of meaningful learning opportunities. Children make their own choices about what activities they would like to explore next. They learn to share and take turns with ease and confidence. For example, in the garden, children play well together with the dinosaurs. They use small brushes with control and steadiness to uncover bones and hidden treasure in the sand. Children maintain their focus and attention for extended periods and build on their fine motor skills.
• Staff model language well and engage in conversations with the children. They use open-ended questions and introduce new vocabulary, such as 'galaxy, asteroid' and 'planet'. However, staff do not use all opportunities to encourage younger or more vulnerable children to repeat these words to embed their knowledge.
• Children have good opportunities to build on their fine motor skills. Younger children colour in and stick shapes on a template, whereas older children use scissors with good control to cut around shapes. This also helps develop children's mathematical skills.
• Children have good opportunities to be active and engage in physical activities. For example, children follow staff's instructions to sing their favourite nursery rhymes while dancing and doing the actions. They also copy yoga poses to build on their balance, coordination and stamina. However, staff do not always encourage the children to explore this further and challenge their learning.
• Children form strong relationships with the staff, who offer a calm, stable and nurturing environment. They feel secure in their care and readily ask for help when needed. This supports children's emotional well-being effectively. Staff have good knowledge of children's learning. They understand what children need to learn next and use information from their observations of children to guide their planning. However, occasionally, staff do not identify when children need more challenge to extend their learning further.
• Leaders' vision and ethos for the setting are ambitious. They continuously look for ways to improve the quality of care and education they provide to benefit the children. This includes working in close partnership with outside professionals and offering additional support to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders value their team's well-being. They organise regular meetings to ensure they keep their knowledge current and up to date.
• Partnership with parents is effective. Parents praise the flexibility and inclusiveness of leaders and staff. For example, parents feel supported and involved in their children's learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the quality of teaching and education to ensure children benefit from extensive and challenging learning opportunities
• focus professional development on improving understanding of how children learn and the use of assessment in curriculum planning.