Little Green Rascals Flaxton

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a calm, nurturing environment for children. They know how to meet their care needs and build secure relationships. This helps children to feel safe, and they show they are settled in the nursery. Children make good progress across all areas of their development and are well prepared for the next stages in their learning. The manager and staff team have a clear vision for the curriculum and understand what they need children to learn. They focus on developing children's communication skills and provide a range of activities to help broaden their experiences. For instance, children enjoy taking part in rugby and football sessions each week.

Staff help children to develop good personal, social and emotional skills. They encourage children to take turns and consistently model good manners to them. Children develop good levels of self-confidence and independence. They benefit from regular praise from staff, and their behaviour is very positive. The nursery has a strong ethos for providing organic meals and promoting children's health and well-being. Children thoroughly enjoy their meals. They learn about the food they eat and how this comes from the local community.

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

• Staff provide a range of exciting activities for children. They carefully prepare environments, inside and outside, to meet children's individual learning needs. For instance, babies enjoy playing in the ball pool in the sensory room. Staff help them to develop their physical skills. Older children look at bugs with staff and describe their features. Toddlers learn about trees and paint with twigs outdoors. Children show enjoyment in activities and maintain good levels of concentration.
• A strength of the nursery are the opportunities for children to learn outdoors. Staff ensure that children have access to the full curriculum and their learning is purposeful. Toddlers thoroughly enjoy activities outside and practise throwing coloured beanbags into the hoops. Staff use the space to have small-group time, where they use musical instruments in different ways and children develop their listening skills. Older children use the nursery's forest school provision and develop their understanding of the world.
• Staff help children to develop good communication and language skills. They have regular group sessions, and staff use different initiatives to build on children's vocabulary. For example, children thoroughly enjoy closing their eyes and guessing the sounds they can hear as staff shake objects from the bag. However, staff do not recognise when the group size becomes too large, and this hinders children's levels of engagement.
• Staff consistently promote children's independence and self-care. For example, young children get their own sun hats and put their own shoes on before they go outside. Staff support them to feed themselves at lunch, and older children begin to self-serve. However, younger children and babies wait for a long time before their lunch, and some struggle with the length of time they are sat down.
• Staff report good levels of well-being. They say they are happy and feel supported in their role. They have access to a wide range of professional development opportunities and create their own evaluative diaries to help them use the knowledge to benefit children in the nursery. Children's voices are included in providing feedback to drive improvements in the nursery. They share their views in their school council, and staff make changes which reflect their wishes.
• The leadership team is strong. It has implemented positive changes. For example, children benefit from the newly embedded curriculum, and management continues to reflect on this with the staff team. Leaders have reflected on staff's workload and ensured they have time to manage their roles. This means children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported effectively.
• The staff team maintains good relationships with families and promotes effective partnership working. For instance, staff provide a wide range of information to families through parents' evenings and parent workshops. This helps them to feel included in their children's learning. Parents say they are thrilled with the 'amazing approach to learning' and give special thanks to the chef who provides 'wonderful, nutritious food'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to consider how they provide support to other staff during focused group time activities, to maintain highest levels of engagement for children
• reflect on lunchtime arrangements to ensure that young children and babies do not wait for too long.