Learning Stars Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in this welcoming nursery. They have a positive attitude to learning and are eager to join in the activities. Children relish playing with the play dough. They use their fingers and hands to roll and pat the dough, and add natural objects, such as sticks, to create their own masterpiece. Children enjoy listening to stories and looking at books. They build a wide vocabulary as staff give them time to talk about what they see in pictures. Meaningful activities help to develop children's understanding even more. For example, children enjoy a story about a stick man. They develop their thinking skills as they choose which sticks to use and decide how to break them to make their own stick figures.

Children behave well. Staff give children clear and consistent messages that help them to understand what is expected of them. Children build good relationships with their key person and with the other staff. These effective relationships help children to feel safe and secure. Children are learning how to develop healthy lifestyles, for example the importance of exercise and healthy food. They enjoy being outside where they ride on bikes and successfully jump around stepping stones. Children are keen to do things for themselves, such as peeling fruit. Tasks such as these help them to build strong independence skills.

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

• Staff have been proactive in supporting children and families through the COVID-19 pandemic. They delivered resources and activities to children when they were required to stay at home. Doorstep visits helped children to stay familiar with their key persons. When children returned to the nursery, staff quickly identified where gaps in their development had emerged. Staff have a consistent approach to supporting children's learning, and children are catching up quickly, especially in their language and social skills.
• Staff provide children who speak English as an additional language with excellent support. Many staff speak the same languages and know when children need to hear familiar words, for example to explain who visitors are. This has a positive impact on children's well-being. Children are developing into confident talkers and express their ideas and emotions clearly.
• Children are gaining a good understanding of mathematics. They quickly collect the right number of objects to correspond with the numbers they are looking at. Children thoroughly enjoy looking for numbers in the environment. They use a pencil and pad to record their findings. Children's early writing skills are developing well. This is evident as they hold pencils well and write numbers correctly.
• Staff take time to get to know children and their families well. They gain detailed information on what children can already do when they start to attend the nursery. Staff plan effectively to help their individual key children successfully build on their existing knowledge and skills.
• The provider has rigorous recruitment procedures in place to help ensure staff are suitable to work with children. She has good systems to support and review staff's practice and to help them develop further. Staff speak very highly of the provider and say they have many opportunities for continuous professional development.
• Parents speak very positively about the nursery and staff. They state that their children are happy and eager to attend. Parents feel well informed about their child's day and the progress they make in learning. They know how to support children's ongoing learning at home.
• The managers and staff regularly reflect on their practice and look for ways to continually improve. They think carefully of how their ongoing plans will be of benefit to children. For example, they are aware that many children have little access to outdoor space at home and so are looking at ways to further develop the outdoor learning area.
• Staff provide a bright, welcoming environment with high-quality learning opportunities. Children are excited to explore and they engage in effective play. Staff know children well and follow their lead in play. However, at times, when there are less children present, staff interact with children too much. This results in children's thought processes and independent learning being interrupted.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children with more time and space to develop their independent learning and to build playful relationships with each other.