Jigsaw Childcare (Catterick) Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and content in this nurturing and well-resourced environment. Staff are enthusiastic and exceptionally welcoming as they greet children and parents on arrival. This supports children to feel safe and secure. Children separate from their parents easily and enter the nursery with big smiles on their faces.

Staff are highly attentive towards babies' developmental needs. Babies delight in the opportunities to practise their early movements. They lie on the floor, happily chewing on a rattle and kicking their legs out. Babies laugh and giggle with glee as they respond to staff who say, 'Look at you, look at your legs moving.' This attention makes babies move their legs even faster.

Children thoroughly appreciate playing together and are active, busy learners. They relish the freedom they have to explore the outdoor environment. Children show exceptional levels of problem-solving, perseverance and a can-do attitude to achieving their goals from a young age. For example, younger children delight in the opportunities offered to practise their developing physical skills. They manoeuvre themselves across crates and balance on planks. Children very carefully watch where they put their feet and keep their arms out to steady themselves. Children respond with beaming smiles at the very genuine praise their receive from staff for their efforts.

Older children relish showing their knowledge of the natural world. They look up as they hear an aeroplane in the sky. Children explain they cannot see the aeroplane because there are clouds in the sky. They talk about the sky needing to be clear to see aeroplanes.

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

• Staff make ongoing assessments of children's achievements. They use detailed development information from parents to plan for children's learning from the start. Staff have a good understanding of what children already know and can do and what they need to learn next. Staff are knowledgeable about how to extend babies' physical skills, for example by encouraging young babies to become more mobile by giving them space to move around.
• Staff are innovative in the ways they support children's mathematical development. For example, with older children, staff introduce outdoor games where children count the number of steps they take. With younger children, staff count 'one' and 'two' as children take their shoes off. This helps children to understand that numbers have meaning.
• The management team and staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and their families exceptionally well. They discuss concerns about children's development with parents. The management team and staff engage with relevant agencies so that support for children is received quickly. This helps children to achieve to the best of their abilities.
• Staff are proficient in developing children's communication and language skills. They get down to children's levels and speak slowly and clearly, giving children time to respond. Babies joyfully babble as they respond to staff talking to them. Staff make the most of opportunities to extend children's vocabulary further. Older children know about oral health and that they could get 'cavities' in their teeth if they forget to brush regularly.
• Staff are exuberant as they read stories. They engage children across all ages in actions to bring the stories to life. For example, as children make 'Gruffalo crumble', they enthusiastically squeeze oranges into the mixture. Children develop their fine motor skills as they mix the crumble and watch it flow through their fingers.
• Staff encourage children's confidence and self-esteem as they give children responsibility for different tasks. For example, older children are eager to hand out cutlery and drinks at lunchtime. Children recognise individual drinks as they read children's names written on the bottles. Children's pride in their achievements reflects in their facial expressions.
• Older children automatically know to wash their hands after using the toilet and before eating. They make sure that they rub soap and water onto their fingers, the back of their hands and their thumbs. Staff help younger children to learn to do this for themselves. However, staff do not use this time to further develop children's understanding of keeping themselves healthy. They do not explain to children the reasons why they need to wash their hands.
• Children behave very well. Older children willingly share resources. Staff teach younger children and babies about taking turns. However, staff are not consistent in developing children's manners. For example, staff do not always say 'please' and 'thank you' or remind children to do the same. As a result, opportunities to develop children's awareness and understanding of respect and consideration for others are sometimes missed.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop children's understanding of self-care skills even further to ensure that they have a good understanding of why they need to keep themselves healthy
• ensure that staff consistently say 'please' and 'thank you' and teach children to do the same in order to improve children's understanding of respect and consideration towards others.