Little Green Rascals - Tadcaster Road

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The leadership team have worked exceptionally hard, alongside the staff team to, make the changes and improvements needed. Since the last inspection, all staff have attended training with the local authority designated officer (LADO). This has improved their understanding of how to report concerns about staff. Leaders provide all staff with safeguarding information and clear procedures to follow. This helps to keep children safe and ensures any concerns are reported swiftly to the relevant professionals. The senior leadership team have shown integrity and dedication in supporting the nursery to drive improvements forward. For instance, parents have been provided with one-to-one consultations and every member of staff has received personal supervision to promote their well-being.

Children show they feel safe and secure in the nursery. They have strong bonds with all staff and settle in quickly. Staff are kind, caring and respectful towards children. They meet their care needs effectively and encourage positive behaviour. Children are well mannered, polite and caring towards each other. They develop good social skills and high levels of self-confidence. Staff implement an exciting curriculum, which is tailored to meet children's individual needs during their different stages of development. They focus on helping children to develop strong foundations for future learning and help them to prepare for the next stages, such as starting school.

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

• Staff have a clear vision for the curriculum and use the 'learning focus' to help children develop new skills. For instance, babies have a rhyme of the week and a sound bag with specific items in. Staff use the animals in the tray to encourage children to sing, dance and stomp. Other staff model the 'b' sound as older babies choose the items from the bag. They show exceptional levels of concentration and engagement for their age.
• Children benefit from the language-rich environment. Staff consistently promote their communication skills across every room in the nursery. For example, children show a love of stories from an early age and sit comfortably on staff's knees for the story. Staff use open questions to encourage children to share their ideas as they build water tunnels outdoors. Pre-school children demonstrate extensive vocabulary and talk about the bones of the skeleton in small groups.
• Staff have excellent relationships with parents and families. They gather detailed information about children when they start and regularly update this. Parents have access to home learning packs and attend sessions to help them focus on developing children's early mathematical skills and phonics at home. Parents leave positive feedback for the nursery. They say the staff are 'caring and understanding, our children thrive in their care'. Other parents are particularly pleased with the communication they receive from the management team, and say the school-readiness programme has 'boosted their children's confidence'.
• Children develop good levels of self-care and independence. Staff encourage them to prepare for sleep times and toddlers are very familiar with their routines. They use cutlery and begin to pour their own water with minimal support from staff. Lunchtime is very sociable and staff sit among children to have conversations about their day. Toddlers recall scissor safety outdoors and staff remind them of the importance of keeping their place mat picture at their own seat, to ensure they 'only have the food they are allowed to eat'.
• Staff carefully prepare the indoor and outdoor environments for children to play, explore and practise their skills. They develop their understanding of the world as they access extra-curricular activities, such as rugby tots, and use the growing area in the garden. Children also have access to a forest school and staff regularly take them on the minibus. Although the nursery community is diverse, this is not reflected effectively in the environment or curriculum, and opportunities to learn about children's own heritage are missed.
• In contrast, the curriculum to develop children's mathematical skills is strong. Staff have attended training and focus on how they can teach mathematics in a purposeful way, depending on children's stages of development. Young children say number names as they play and staff model language as they dig, pour, empty and fill. Older children play independently and discuss how many oranges they think they have in their pot. They know they need to count them out one at a time to get the right number and do this together without any support from staff.
• The arrangements to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are strong. Staff are skilled at identifying areas of potential delay in children's learning. Leaders provide support to staff and work alongside parents and other professionals to create individual plans for children. They have an excellent knowledge of children and understand the support they need, which helps them to minimise gaps in their learning.
• Staff say they feel valued here and are very happy in the nursery. They speak passionately about the training and support they receive to help develop their skills to work with children. New staff benefit from an extensive induction process, which helps them to understand their role and meet the high expectations of leaders. Leaders continue to focus on helping new staff, and supply staff, understand the curriculum, so they can provide high-quality learning experiences for young children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider and implement ways to reflect diversity and culture in the nursery, with specific focus on children who attend
• continue to support staff who are new the setting, including supply staff, to help them maintain the high-quality, purposeful learning experiences for children.