Little Chiefs Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are warm and welcoming when they greet parents and their children at the nursery door. This helps children to feel safe and happy to attend. Children smile and separate quickly from their parents. Staff take the time to talk to parents to gather information about their child, including how they feel that day. Staff use what they know about children to create experiences that support children to learn.

Staff support children to understand and learn what is expected of them. At group time, staff ask older children to stand up, turn around and touch a body part, followed by another instruction, such as to show the number two using their fingers. Staff change their instructions for younger children and demonstrate them to help children understand what is expected. Staff use praise when children behave well to remind and show their friends how they would like them to behave. For example, children are praised when they sit well and listen to staff.

Children learn how to keep themselves safe. Babies watch staff as they dry the floor. They bend down, point, and make a sound to show staff where more water is. Staff remind children to watch where they are going as they run, to prevent them from tripping. Older children stop running to move toys out the way when they chase their friends around the garden.

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

• The manager and staff understand child development and what they want children to learn. They use children's interests to plan the environments and activities they offer to children. Their intention is to support all children's readiness towards their next stages of learning, including those children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• The setting supports children's personal, social and emotional development. For example, before children start, settling-in sessions are offered to help build positive relationships. Staff speak to parents to find out children's interests, and they spend time with the children. This helps children to get to know their key person, which contributes to children feeling secure and engaging for long periods with staff.
• Through their strong relationships with staff, children make friends from a young age. Staff support children to learn how to be kind to their friends. They model manners and turn taking, and explain how to be kind to other children. Young children hold out chairs and tap the seat for their peers to sit down. They pick up their friends' dummies and take them to who it belongs to. Older children suggest that they take turns when they play games, so that everyone has a go.
• The setting uses assessments and observations to identify areas where children need further support. They discuss children's development with families, and offer referrals to other services, such as speech and language services to enhance their support for children's communication and language development. Where necessary, the setting puts targets in place to focus on specific areas of learning to help children make progress, including children with SEND. Additional funding is used effectively to provide one-to-one support from staff to implement these targets.
• Parents comment on the welcoming and supportive staff at the setting. This supports them to have conversations about their personal circumstances. They say that they have received specific support when needed, such as flexible attendance. Parents talk about how their children's confidence has increased through the bonds with staff. They say that their children have learned to use the toilet independently through staff support. Parents say they receive daily information from staff about the activities their children have been doing. However, they are not clear about how to support their children's next steps for learning at home.
• The manager has made changes to the setting, which has had a positive impact on staff's practice. Staff say that they have attended training, allocated by the manager, that has improved their knowledge to manage children's behaviour. As a result, staff are confident to support children's behaviours, and older children are beginning to manage conflicts independently. The manager reflects on the observations she completes of staff. She has processes in place to develop and support staff practice to implement the curriculum. However, this is not yet fully embedded. For example, when children eat, staff do not introduce them to information about healthy and unhealthy foods, which is part of the curriculum.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further develop ways to engage with parents to share children's next steps and support children's ongoing learning at home
• focus more precisely on developing staff's practice to fully implement the intended curriculum.