JETS,

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy and enjoy their time at nursery. Staff greet children warmly when they arrive and support them to settle quickly. They develop close bonds with children and understand their needs well. Older children are encouraged to rate their day at school and share any worries with staff. This helps children to feel safe and supports their mental well-being effectively.

Children develop good early literacy skills. They are confident and display a positive attitude towards learning. Staff provide plenty of opportunities to sing songs, engage in discussions and read stories. They consider how they can use books to extend children's learning around themes, such as sea creatures and transport. This helps children to develop a deeper understanding of nature and how things work.

Staff display high expectations for children's learning and behaviour. They use their knowledge to skilfully build on children's prior knowledge and interests. Children benefit from a wide range of experiences and regular trips into the local area. As part of a recent transport topic, children have visited various places, such as the local garage and train station. This helps to support children's understanding of the wider world.

Children have good opportunities to be physically active and develop their understanding of healthy lifestyles. For example, staff discuss healthy choices at mealtimes and why it is important to wash your hands. They talk to children about the importance of drinking water and how they use their muscles when mixing dough. Outdoors, children practise their developing physical skills, such as climbing, jumping and balancing.

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

• Partnerships with parents are very successful and well embedded into practice. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, staff have considered different ways to engage with parents and support children's learning at home. For example, they regularly send home activities and share recipe ideas. This helps to provide good continuity in children's learning.
• Overall, staff use the knowledge gained from training well to support children's developing language skills. They model language and introduce new words during activities, such as 'metallic' and 'scales'. However, on some occasions, staff do not give children enough time to think about and respond to questions they have asked. This means that children do not always have the opportunity to extend their thinking skills even further.
• Staff monitor children's progress and quickly identify any gaps in their learning.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported very well. Staff work with parents and other professionals to ensure interventions are sought and strategies put into place. This helps to successfully narrow the gaps in children's learning.
• The management team are passionate and committed to their roles. They carefully evaluate the quality of their provision and produce regular action plans. Feedback is sought from parents, staff and children. This helps to identify and support continuous improvements.
• Children behave well and learn to value differences. Staff set clear boundaries and consistently use praise to support children's confidence and self-esteem. They plan activities that help to support children's understanding of occupations and promote positive role models. This helps to successfully support children's understanding of modern society.
• Staff are valued and well supported in their roles. Managers plan regular supervision meetings and identify training to enhance their knowledge and skills. The manager has used knowledge gained during recent training to implement new ideas, such as staff coffee mornings and well-being questionnaires. These help to successfully support staff in their roles and identify areas where they may need more guidance.
• Generally, staff plan a wide range of interesting activities that cover the different areas of learning. They meet to discuss planning and consider what skills children will learn from activities and topics. However, on occasions, the learning intentions set by staff are not always implemented fully. This means that not all activities consistently build on what children already know and can do.
• Children display confidence in their abilities and learn to be independent. For example, they collect their coats from their pegs and scrape their plates after lunch. This helps to equip children with some of the skills needed when they eventually move on to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the planning of activities to ensure learning intentions closely match the experiences children receive
• provide children with more time to think about and respond to questions.