Little Explorers

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Since the last inspection, the setting has worked with the local authority to meet the previous actions raised. These improvements have impacted positively on children's care, learning and development. Leaders gather feedback from the families who attend and other agencies to support them in maintaining a clear view of the setting's strengths and areas of development. Leaders have designed an aspirational curriculum and have good oversight of the progress that children make. Staff use opportunities as they arise to extend children's learning. For example, when children use their imaginations to make ice cream for each other, staff provide suggestions and join in to extend their play. Children queue up and pay for the ice cream. Staff encourage them to consider how much the ice cream costs. Children have fun and make good progress in their learning.

Staff welcome children enthusiastically on their arrival at the nursery. They take the time to get to know each child and family. Staff value children's individual personalities and family backgrounds. They are good role models as they model respect, such as seeking permission from children before changing their nappies and using good manners. Children have formed good bonds with the staff and their peers. They play well together and show great care and kindness to living things. As they dig, they carefully look for 'wriggly worms'. As they play with dolls, they gently wrap them up and rock them.

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

• The registered body has ensured that the required checks have been completed for all directors to assure their suitability. Leaders are committed to the continuous improvement of the setting. They use feedback from parents and the local authority to continue to drive improvements. Leaders have effectively met the actions raised at the last inspection.
• Partnership working is a strength of the nursery. This helps to ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well. Leaders work with staff to identify any children that may benefit from extra support in their learning. They put in place early interventions and use the specialism of other professionals. This helps all children to make the progress they are capable of.
• Practitioners support children's language and communication skills well. They model clear language and use gestures and objects to support children with SEND, or those who speak English as an additional language. They read aloud to the children in an engaging way and children independently explore and share books with their friends. Babies use animal sounds as they see animals on the pages of the books. Children make good progress in their communication and language development.
• Staff provide children with a range of experiences to build upon their physical skills. Babies are provided with space and encouragement as they begin to take their first steps. Staff show older children how to catch a ball and then encourage them to throw it to their friends. Staff model how to stand on scooters as children develop their balance and co-ordination. Children show high levels of confidence in their physical abilities.
• Mathematics is woven into everyday activities in a fun way. As children build with blocks, staff count and use these opportunities to introduce positional language. For example, they introduce concepts such as 'under' and 'over' as children explore the bridge they have made. Children recall this learning as they proudly exclaim to their friends that they went under the bridge and over the river.
• Leaders have established strong relationships with parents to ensure they are kept up to date about their children's learning and how to extend this at home. Parents value the time that staff take to get to know each child's individual personality. They have noticed particular progress with their children's confidence and communication skills since they have started attending.
• Leaders place high importance on staff well-being and staff report that they feel well supported in their roles. Leaders have introduced new coaching and supervision systems, and these are impacting positively on staff practice. However, these systems are still in their infancy and the support for some staff is not as targeted in building upon their knowledge and skills. This results in some minor inconsistencies in the implementation of the setting's policies and curriculum.
• Staff plan activities that meet children's needs and capture their interests. They are clear what they intend for children to learn and children eagerly join these activities. However, at times, staff do not link children's learning between different activities. For example, as they introduce new colours in an activity, they do not provide other learning opportunities that enable children to apply their new knowledge and skills in different contexts.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to provide staff with support, training and coaching to address the minor inconsistencies in practice
• provide children with learning opportunities that enable them to use, and make links with, what they have learned, in different contexts.