KatieB Kids

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy in this welcoming nursery. Children receive excellent opportunities to create through drawing, painting, building and making sculptures. The environment creates interesting learning opportunities for children, and staff adapt activities so every child can explore and learn. The outdoor area has been developed well by leaders and staff to ensure that children have chances to practise their gross motor coordination. The careful consideration and placement of resources ensures that children learn to run, jump and balance.

Children have lots of opportunities to explore nature and the wider world. Even the youngest children have chances to attend daily visits in the local community. They develop their understanding of their senses, as they explore the seasonal changes and observe the wildlife. Staff guide children to be curious and positive learners. They celebrate children's achievements, and children know they are valued.

Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and happily try out the activities on offer. For example, during outdoor play, staff support children to explore the cause-and-effect action of carefully rolling golf balls down narrow ramps. They encourage the children to keep on trying and not to give up. This develops children's resilience and creates a can-do attitude to learning.

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

• Leaders work well together and provide an effectively planned curriculum across all areas of learning. For example, staff skilfully provide an excellent range of experiences for children to explore through creativity, songs and opportunities to think critically and solve problems. The area of personal, social, emotional development is weaved within these activities. Children learn to collaborate, share, take turns and understand how others may be thinking and feeling.
• Children receive obvious care and nurture from staff. The children are confident and extremely happy as a result. As children arrive, they smile as they wave goodbye to their parents before confidently exploring their environment. Quieter children are supported by staff to gain confidence, as they give them one-to-one support and encouragement to engage in activities. However, on occasion the support for new starters is not always implemented effectively. This means that particularly for babies, it takes slightly longer to settle and therefore engage in the abundance of learning experiences available to them.
• Staff share stories with children and engage in the many conversations that occur. For example, when children recognise fish bones in a book, staff skilfully engage them in conversations about these. This encourages children to make links and talk about other experiences they have had, such as seeing dinosaur bones at a museum. Children enjoy sharing their familiar experiences and demonstrate that they can take turns to respectfully listen and respond. For the most part, children maintain high levels of sustained concentration, particularly outside. However, at times inside the nursery, the noise levels become so high that children struggle to hear each other. This means that children can quickly become disengaged and unsettled in their play and routines.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff say words and sing songs in in both languages. They ensure that children have opportunities to see and use their home language. This means that children who start with a very limited understanding of English become confident communicators.
• Staff form very close relationships with parents. They make them aware of their children's progress and ways to continue their learning at home. Staff work with parents and other agencies to provide support and agree how they can help children further, especially children with special educational needs and/disabilities (SEND) and those with identified gaps in their speech development.
• Staff report that the leaders are very supportive and that they all work well as a team. The manager has extensive knowledge of her staff's strengths and where they need extra support and understanding. This adds to quickly improve the quality of interactions between staff and children. Training is offered to support staff to further develop their practice. For example, staff are receiving additional information about how to give children time to listen and respond, so that they feel like they are making a valid contribution during conversations.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of support for children who are new to the setting, to ensure children settle well and engage in learning
• develop further strategies to help reduce the noise level in the indoor area, to allow all children to be heard and maintain their concentration.