Just for Starters Day Nursery Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle well. They are happy, safe and engaged. Children start their day in smaller groups before fully submerging themselves into the larger learning environment. This means that children of all ages and abilities play safely together. Children benefit from high-quality experiences within a purposefully planned environment. For example, children use books as a reference to create butterfly prints. This helps to build on their existing knowledge of the insects they found while outdoors, including their colours.

To further reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders and staff work in close partnership with parents to ensure that all children make good progress from their starting points. They plan a wealth of opportunities for parents and the community to contribute towards the delivery of the curriculum, such as litter picking with children and teaching children their home language. This positively heightens children's social and friendship-building skills.

Children demonstrate kind behaviours. For example, when a tower of soft blocks falls onto their peers, they spontaneously say 'sorry'. Staff introduce a sand timer during routine activities to ensure that children know what to expect. For example, children count to 10 as they watch the sand pour to the bottom, and they know that this means that it is now someone else's turn. Additionally, staff use sign language to promote children's understanding. For example, they sign 'finish'. This positively contributes towards children's happiness at the setting.

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

• Leaders and staff have a clear intent for what they want all children to learn, including children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They use a wealth of educational programmes and assessments to enhance children's learning. For example, 'vocab sheets' ensure that staff revisit important vocabulary to strengthen children's communication skills. This includes the use of mathematical language to extend conversations with children.
• Leaders are enthusiastic. They have a clear vision for the setting's future. However, the manager has not been in post for a sustained amount of time and therefore has not yet fully embedded all improvement plans into practice. For instance, she aims to tighten procedures for monitoring assessments, especially relating to the progress check for all children between the ages of two and three years, to further build on their outcomes.
• Procedures in place ensure that parents receive information about their children's learning and how they can continue this at home. Leaders gather parents' views through daily conversations and questionnaires. This helps to highlight areas to develop and improve. Parents speak highly of the team, including the quality of care and learning provided to children. They describe the setting as having a 'nurturing ethos'.
• Leaders have recently appointed a well-being coordinator to create a culture of support for staff, children and parents. For example, the coordinator introduces 'conversation prompts' for staff to strengthen their interactions with children and promote a more-calming environment where children can thrive in their learning.
• Leaders have robust procedures to ensure that staff are deemed to be suitable to work with children. This includes making sure that staff have the skills that they need to positively impact the children who attend. Through tailored training, observations and regular supervisions, leaders identify accurate plans to strengthen staff's ongoing professional development.
• Children's views play an integral part in how the setting is organised. For example, staff encourage children to reflect on their prior knowledge and share their ideas. This positively enhances their learning in the moment. As a result, younger children use words such as 'hibernate' when discussing bears. However, on occasions, staff do not always identify how they can help children to excel in their independence and test their own ideas. This means that, at times, staff complete simple tasks for children.
• Children greatly benefit from a structured routine to promote their physical development. For example, they partake in a yoga session where they move their whole body with control. They spontaneously engage in risky play as they jump from one soft block to another, and they further challenge their balancing skills as they walk across a beam with a beanbag on their head. This means that children develop a wealth of confidence in their gross motor skills.
• Partnerships with schools are effective to meet the needs of all children. For example, older children visit the on-site school, attend assemblies, and their future teachers read to them. Together, staff and teachers liaise with parents to share their expectations for the curriculum. This helps to prepare children for their next stage of education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to embed improvement plans to ensure that practice further builds on children's outcomes
• review staff practice to provide children with even more opportunities to test their ideas and promote their independence.