Lilliput Day Nursery (Spalding) Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show positive relationships with staff. For example, children in the baby room squeal with excitement when they look at staff through coloured windows on outdoor equipment. Parents appreciate how staff give children cuddles when they first start attending, to help them settle. Children are supported by staff to have a sense of belonging in the nursery. This includes children who speak English as an additional language. For example, meals are added to menus to reflect food from children's cultures. Older toddlers receive gentle reminders from staff to use good manners when they ask for food, encouraging them to be polite.

Children have opportunities to be physically active. In the baby room, staff supervise children well when they access soft play equipment to promote their safety. They praise children when they slide down ramps, which results in children clapping their hands to show their own sense of achievement. This helps to encourage a positive attitude to learning. Children in the pre-school room are excited to join in planned activities to help develop their listening and large-muscle skills. For example, staff give children instructions to move their bodies in certain ways, such as to point their toes and bend their knees. Pre-school children develop their small hand muscles and solve problems when they are given keys to open locks.

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

• Staff share information and photos with parents about what activities their children enjoy doing in the nursery. Parents say that they appreciate the care and learning that staff provide for their children. However, they do not support all parents to continue their children's learning at home. This would help to provide a more united approach to supporting children's development.
• The cook and staff offer children a healthy range of home-cooked snacks and meals to promote a healthy diet. They provide children with drinking water so they can keep hydrated throughout the day. Staff provide children with opportunities to learn how food grows. For example, they help staff to grow strawberries and radishes in the garden.
• The managers support staff's well-being and practice. Staff have opportunities to extend their professional development. For example, all staff complete training courses to help them understand how to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff agree strategies to improve outcomes for children at staff meetings. However, the managers do not ensure that these are fully implemented with the younger children. This includes helping younger children to develop their knowledge of the importance of oral hygiene.
• The managers and staff have a clear intent of the curriculum, which is threaded throughout the playrooms. This helps to provide children with a range of experiences to support their learning in preparation for school. For example, children learn about 'things above us', and have opportunities to make and fly paper aeroplanes.
• Children with SEND receive targeted support for their learning. For example, staff use pictures to help children to understand the routines of the day. The manager uses additional funding effectively. For example, funding is used to enhance adult-to-child ratios, to ensure that children receive enough support to meet their care and learning needs.
• The managers and staff implement a 'traffic light system' to help children to manage their behaviour. They give children consistent praise, clap their hands and put their thumbs up to acknowledge children's achievements. This helps to raise children self-esteem and to understand what is expected of them.
• Staff support children's emotional well-being, such as when there are changes in routine. For example, they read and look at books with younger toddlers while they wait for others to get ready to go for a walk. However, occasionally, when staff read stories to older toddlers, they do not maintain their focus during planned group story times. This means that they are not able to learn as much as possible from the learning experience being offered.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. For example, older toddlers hear new words, such as 'telescope', to help extend their vocabulary. This ignites a back-and-forth conversation about what they can see out of the window with their telescope. This helps children to learn how to take turns in conversations.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• offer all parents ideas and suggestions about how they can continue to support their children's learning at home
• help staff to implement strategies discussed at staff meetings to support younger children to understand the importance of oral hygiene
• support staff to find ways of how to maintain older toddlers' focus when they read them stories at group times.