Jack in the Box Day Care

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, settled and confident in this nurturing setting. They receive a very warm and positive welcome from caring staff who know them well. Children are keen to get involved in play and engage happily and enthusiastically throughout the day.

Children's love of being outdoors is recognised and respected. All children, including the very youngest, choose to spend a good deal of time in the well-resourced outdoor play areas. They have much fun playing and exploring in the fresh air. They crawl, toddle and run around practising and building on their physical skills. Staff support children with their balance on large outdoor play equipment so that they develop their confidence and coordination skills. The sand area is a particular favourite, well-used resource. Children extend their ability to use and control various tools as they fill and empty buckets. They use vehicles to make marks and tracks in the sand, learning valuable skills to help with future writing.

Children learn about the importance of sharing and of being kind to one another. Staff are good role models. They treat everyone with respect and children learn from this. Firm friendships are beginning to form between the children and, overall, they play happily and cooperatively together.

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

• The experienced manager and her dedicated staff team go to great lengths to make sure that children are well looked after. They have made every effort to provide and maintain a high-quality childcare offer during the pandemic. Parents and carers very much appreciate this and also the continued support they receive. For example, they say the setting's willingness to be flexible with childcare hours enables them to meet the demands of changes to their working hours.
• Members of the staff team which includes early years teachers, think carefully about the curriculum for children. They have high expectations of what children can achieve from their different starting points. All children, including those who need additional support, engage in a wide range of learning opportunities. These are planned to help them make good progress in their development.
• Children are curious and interested in all around them. They develop a love of reading and listen attentively to the stories staff read to them to help their language development. Staff skilfully use props, such as animal figures and story sacks, to encourage children's engagement. Books are plentiful and readily available in all rooms. Children are often found sitting in quiet areas looking at books throughout the day.
• Overall, the 'Bouncers' room in which the youngest children are cared for is an enabling environment where they feel relaxed, comfortable and secure. They are able to explore safely and are supported by their key persons. However, the current arrangements for sleep for these younger children mean that they are occasionally disturbed. As a result, they do not always get the rest that they need.
• High standards of cleanliness and stringent procedures to reduce the risk of cross-infection help to promote children's health. Children quickly learn about the importance of washing hands and eating healthy. Meals and snacks are varied, healthy and nutritious. The empty plates after lunch are an indication that the food is very much enjoyed. Children sit happily together at mealtimes and learn important social skills in readiness for school.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are, for the most part, very strong. There is a lot of mutual respect and trust between the two parties, and they work well together to promote children's welfare. Staff are careful to ensure that important information is passed on when children are collected. Some ideas for learning are shared. However, staff have not explored ways to build on this further to help parents support individual children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of the area for sleep for the youngest children so they rest without disturbance
• increase the information given to parents to help them support their child's learning at home.