Lime Tree Quorn

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show that they feel safe and secure. They have positive relationships with staff. Children of all ages go to staff for cuddles and receive a warm reassuring rub on their back for comfort. Children behave well and show kindness to their peers. For example, three-year-old children show new children where to attach days of the week signs to a wall display. Two-year-old children work as a team to put boxes away during tidy-up time.

Staff plan experiences to help children to develop in their learning. They provide plenty of opportunities for children to be physically active. Babies are encouraged to walk. Staff support their body weight to provide opportunities for them to learn how to balance and coordinate their feet. Staff initiate a game of hide and seek in the garden. Three-year-old children scream with excitement when they run energetically around and look for places to hide. One-year-old children have opportunities to be creative. They use flowers dipped in paint to make marks on paper. Two-year-old children show pride and a sense of achievement in their artwork. They hold up their pictures and tell staff and visitors what they have drawn.

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

• The manager and staff place a high priority on supporting children's communication and language development. Staff attend training courses to increase their knowledge of how to support this aspect of children's development. They share this with other staff. This helps to ensure that all staff understand and implement the same strategies to support children's development. For example, staff ask three- and four-year-old children questions that encourages them to think. Staff sing nursery rhymes and name objects children see in books, when they interact with children who are under the age of two years old.
• Staff share information with parents about children's learning and achievements. Parents comment positively about staff. They say that they are lovely, welcoming and are very good with the children. Parents appreciate the information they receive about their children on the electronic system staff use to share photos of activities children have enjoyed.
• Staff help children to learn about their feelings. For example, they ask two-year-old children to recognise facial expressions when they read them stories about characters that have different feelings.
• When staff read stories to children, they use different tones in their voice to maintain children's attention. Children learn skills for the future, such as to sit well and listen to stories. However, during some planned activities, staff do not always manage to maintain children's interests and engagement. For example, staff ask children to sit for long periods of time, and some lose interest.
• When children first start attending, the manager and staff promote children's emotional well-being. For example, they offer children settling-in sessions. This enables children to get to know staff and the environment before they attend for longer sessions.
• Staff gain a range of information from parents about children's prior learning. However, they do not always use this information to support their knowledge of how they can continue to support children's development when they first start.
• Staff provide experiences for children to develop their understanding of numbers and language that describe size. For example, staff count objects when they play alongside one-year-old children. When children play with daffodils in sand, staff count how many flowers they can see. Staff ask three-year-old children to find objects that are small and large when they select toys to build and construct.
• The manager and staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They work with other professionals and have targeted plans in place to meet children's individual needs. This includes helping them to manage their behaviour when the routine of the day changes. For example, they show children objects such as a plate when it is lunchtime.
• Staff give children plenty of praise and encouragement, when they display positive behaviour. For example, one-year-old children copy staff when they clap their hands after they sing nursery rhymes. Staff give two-year-old children time and encouragement when they try to fit shapes into the correct pieces on a puzzle.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strength staff's understanding of how to make greater use of planned group activities to help maintain children's interest and engagement
• support staff to use information gathered about children's abilities from parents when they first start, to more effectively plan for children's ongoing progress.