LADN Tilbury Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily and are eager to get involved in the activities on offer to them. The atmosphere is calm and welcoming. Children have formed strong bonds with the staff, who they smile and laugh with during play. Children play well with each other and have formed friendships. They are kind, considerate and polite to one another. For example, they help their friends take their shoes off if they are struggling. Children in the younger room are taught to share and take turns with their friends, while children in the older room do this independently and proudly tell the staff when they have shared with a friend. Staff are good role models. They encourage and praise the children during the day.

All children make good progress from their starting points. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those in receipt of additional funding, such as early years pupil premium. Children's individual needs are supported through well-planned strategies, and adaptations are made to ensure all children can access all aspects of the curriculum. Staff identify potential areas of need and use funding well to support children to make the best possible progress.

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

• There has been a change of leadership since the last inspection. The current leaders are reflective and have worked hard to implement the changes required. They have embraced the support offered by the local authority. Leaders have sourced appropriate training opportunities for the staff team to help staff develop their practice. The whole team is motivated and continues to reflect on the service it provides.
• The manager and staff implement an ambitious, sequenced curriculum. They provide a wide range of interesting activities and experiences. Staff engage with children during their play and follow their interests. They adapt their approach to meet the needs of all children. However, sometimes, staff do not always identify times in children's play when they could extend their learning further. This means that children are not consistently provided with high levels of challenge.
• Staff support children's emerging communication skills well. They provide a narrative as children play and add words to what children say. Staff make effective use of visual cues when communicating with children. They ask some questions to extend children's learning. However, staff do not always give children enough time to think and respond to questions to allow them to share their knowledge and understanding.
• Children's independence is promoted from a young age. Children are taught skills such as putting on their coats, serving their meals and pouring their drinks. The environment is set up so the children can self-select toys and resources they would like to access throughout the day. As a result, children show good levels of independence and confidence.
• Children have constant access to the outdoor space where there are plenty of opportunities to develop their physical skills. The younger children are supported to climb the stairs of the slides and practise pouring water from one container to another in the water tray. Older children work together when using tools to 'fix' the playhouse and play energetic games of football with the staff.
• Staff are inducted well for their role when they begin employment and when they are promoted. They have regular supervision sessions and are offered frequent professional development opportunities. Staff feel well supported in their roles and appreciate that their views and ideas are sought and respected when changes are made to the setting.
• The manager has worked hard to build strong partnerships with parents. She ensures she is aware of the needs of the local community so she can best support the children and families appropriately. As a result, the parents speak very highly of the setting. They are kept fully up to date regarding their child's development and report that their children have made progress since starting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the quality of staff interactions with children to help them challenge and extend children's learning more effectively as they play
• build on staff questioning techniques to enable children to have more time to think, respond and demonstrate what they know.