Jumpers

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children play and learn in a caring and positive environment. They build strong relationships with their peers and adults in the setting. This supports their emotional well-being effectively. Children are happy and feel safe. They settle quickly and develop confidence in exploring their environment.

Children behave well. They understand the expectations that staff have of them. Children receive warm praise from staff for the good choices they make. They copy staff's positive interactions. Children learn to speak respectfully to each other, take turns and be kind to their friends.

Children develop and build on their vocabulary, which enables them to express themselves confidently. They have plenty of opportunities to explore books and listen to stories that they enjoy. Young children enjoy singing songs and joining in with the actions. Older children are successfully learning mathematical concepts, such as shape and size, and beginning to count with increasing confidence.

Leaders and staff work well together. They have high expectations of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language. They work hard to ensure that children's needs are quickly identified and that they receive early input.

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

• Staff interact warmly during care routines, such as nappy changes and washing hands. They make eye contact and sing songs. At sleep and rest times, staff reassure children by patting and stroking them. This helps children to feel safe and secure.
• Children confidently develop their independence and self-care skills. They independently select toys and resources that they want to play with and take the lead in this. Staff teach children tasks such as dressing and washing and drying their hands independently. Children tidy up after themselves and understand why this is important to keep them and their friends safe. However, routines such as lunchtime are not always well managed compared to other routines in the setting. Children can spend a long time waiting, and conversations do not always stimulate them.
• All children are making good progress across the seven areas of learning. Any possible gaps in learning are quickly identified and appropriate support put in place. Children are well prepared for next stages of learning. Overall, the curriculum is well sequenced, ambitious and challenging.
• Staff regularly observe, plan and provide creative and exciting experiences that children engage with. However, on occasion, during activities, staff do not always give children enough time to think and answer questions posed to them. This does not always provide opportunities for children to promote and develop their thinking.
• Children persevere with their activities and receive huge encouragement and praise from the staff. This promotes children's resilience and helps them to become motivated lifelong learners.
• All children develop their physical skills well. Babies practise walking safely using low-level furniture and enjoy crawling through tunnels. Older children throw, run, jump and learn to balance confidently. Staff plan effective opportunities for children to strengthen the muscles in their hands. Children draw shapes in the sand and use scissors confidently. They pull, squash and flatten play dough and use jugs and cups to pour and fill water. This helps to ensure that children are well prepared for writing.
• Parents talk positively about the setting. They value the daily verbal feedback about their child's day and find the photos and information on the nursery app very useful. The manager recently held a workshop for parents to learn about how to support their children at home. This successful partnership has had a positive impact on children's learning and development.
• The staff talk positively about leaders and the support they receive. Leaders work closely with staff to support their learning through training and development. Staff receive effective support and value regular supervision meetings.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make better use of routine activities and strengthen opportunities for children to extend their learning further
• support staff to make better use of questioning during activities to promote children's thinking.