Little Garden Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and confident at this nursery. Younger children who attend receive a wealth of excellent learning experiences. This means they are extremely well prepared for the next chapter of their education when they move to a pre-school setting. Children form exceptionally strong bonds with the adults that care for them, helping them to feel safe and secure. Babies use all of their senses to explore the texture of large pine cones and oats with their hands. They experiment making sounds as they gently bang the bristles. Staff go to exceptional lengths to ensure new children settle in at their own pace and receive excellent support and reassurance.

Children move very confidently between the play areas and make their own play choices from the interesting variety of activities on offer. They are curious and excited to explore the resources and show excellent levels of engagement for their age. For example, older children independently take water from the water butt to use to fill their buckets to water plants. Mathematical language is woven into their play and games. Children are supported to begin building strong friendships from an early age. Sharing and turn taking is consistently reinforced to help children clearly understand this.

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

• The ambitious, passionate, and dedicated manager has a strong and clear vision for the pre-school. She provides a broad curriculum designed to prepare children for school. Staff use their precise assessments of children's development well, overall, to encourage good progress.
• Children in receipt of funded early education and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported to reach their full potential. Children's progress is constantly monitored, and rapid referrals are initiated to ensure that interventions are obtained when necessary. This results in children making exceptional progress in their development.
• Books and stories are a big part of children's experience. Staff use books to support children's language development and regularly introduce new words, such as lava and eruption and themes and ideas for children to discuss further.
• Children are extremely confident and independent. They take complete ownership during mealtimes, which helps them to manage their own self-care. Staff warmly encourage children to persevere and children do not give up easily, such as when putting on their coats, jumpers and shoes.
• Staff work very closely with parents. They keep them fully informed about all aspects of their children's care and learning. Parents are extremely positive about the staff and the work they do. They are particularly delighted about the high levels of care and attention their children receive.
• Staff provide a purposeful learning environment, which challenges children's physical development. Young children hold staff's hands as they learn to walk. They manoeuvre their bodies and enjoy using the slide. Older children manage risks and create their own obstacle courses using crates, tyres and logs, before carefully balancing and walking over them. They learn to handle real tools with care and develop their small-muscle skills while participating in numerous art and craft activities.
• Good oral hygiene is encouraged by staff. Children learn why it is important to look after their teeth and wash their hands regularly.
• Children explore similarities and differences between people in a variety of ways. For instance, in the role-play area children use a wide range of materials to explore and create the hair textures of people from different cultures and talk about different skin colour.
• The manager reflects on her practice, supports her staff team very well and builds a highly positive atmosphere for staff well-being. She has strong systems in place to monitor, supervise and train staff to support their ongoing professional development. However, there is further support needed to help staff raise their good level of teaching higher. For example, although staff deliver high-quality interactions that effectively build on what children already know this is not consistent in supporting older children to achieve even better outcomes.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make even better use of interactions with children to build further on what they already know and extend their thinking skills.