Leapfrog Neighbourhood Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

There is a warm and nurturing atmosphere at the nursery. Children behave well, are relaxed, happy and settled. This demonstrates the positive relationships that children have with staff and each other. Staff create an environment that supports children's developing early independence and self-care skills. For example, children can make decisions and choices about their play and are motivated to persevere when putting dressing-up clothes on. Staff teach children to pour their own drinks and scrape their left-over food into the bin. This helps children to do as much as possible for themselves.

Staff embed early mathematics thoughtfully into the daily routine and activities. For instance, as children enjoy constructing models, making dough or listening to stories, staff help children to learn about number, shape, size and colour. Children enjoy mixing flour, water and colouring. Staff encourage children to count out the number of scoops of flour they need by counting with them. This helps children develop a positive attitude towards mathematics.

Leaders and staff have high aspirations for all children. The curriculum is well designed to build on what children know and can do. Staff enhance children's learning through their interactions and planned activities. For example, staff teach children specific skills, such as how to use scissors and cutlery correctly. Children make good progress over time and grow in confidence as they master new skills.

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

• Leaders are passionate and constantly evaluate the impact of the curriculum and the environment on children's learning and development. They observe practice and role model practice effectively. They identify training needs and offer opportunities for staff to improve their own knowledge and skills. They identify the setting's strengths and what the priorities are for future improvement.
• Children learn in a language-rich environment. Staff promote key words with children during their interactions. Staff are skilled at asking children questions that help them to develop their critical thinking. Staff share familiar books with children to help them to recall and remember events in the story.
• Overall, the key-person arrangements are well embedded and support children's move through the setting. Staff know the children well. They develop good attachments and understand the importance of getting to know the families and what children are interested in. Staff show a genuine interest in the children and help make connections between their home life and the setting. For example, children are eager to look through their personal photo albums of their family. This helps children to recall and talk about personal and familiar experiences.
• Staff help children learn about diversity and people from around the world. This helps children to gain a wider understanding of different cultures. Furthermore, children benefit from interesting outings and learn about people and places that make up their community. Parents are invited to share special events or specific skills and occupations. This broadens children's understanding of families' similarities and differences and people from their local community.
• Staff offer a broad curriculum that is ambitious and has high expectations of what the children can learn. However, at times, staff do not focus on supporting those children who are quieter or less confident to benefit fully from the intended learning. This means quieter children do not always receive the targeted support they need to further develop their skills and knowledge to the highest levels.
• Children develop strong emotional bonds with their key person and other staff. Staff are highly responsive to the needs of new children settling, offering comfort and consistent routines that support secure attachments. The routines generally offer children good levels of structure and predictability. However, staff do not manage the transition times consistently well to fully support children's learning and development. As a result, transitions between some routine activities are at times too lengthy and some children become disengaged.
• Staff develop strong partnerships with parents. They give parents and children a warm welcome as they arrive. Parent feedback is very positive. They comment on the good levels of care and the regular communication that they receive. This helps to enhance children's learning at home.
• Leaders have robust recruitment procedures in place to ensure that all staff are suitable. Staff report that they are well supported by leaders and the wider team. They have access to a varied professional development programme. This ensures that staff keep their knowledge up to date and understand their roles and responsibilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider more closely how to adapt activities to support quieter children, so the quality of education is consistently at the highest level to maximise and fully engage all children's learning opportunities
• identify more effective ways to manage transitions during the daily routine, so that staff fully support children's learning and development.