Little Gruffalos

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and parents are greeted warmly by the friendly and caring staff. Children enter the setting happily and quickly settle into the familiar routine. Staff support children through a strong key-worker system. This helps staff to support children's individual needs and ensure their education and care needs are met.

Children are encouraged to explore their feelings and talk about their fears. Staff use activities to channel children's worries and talk about why they may be upset. For example, children make dream catchers and sensory bottles to use and focus discussion. Children behave well. Staff support them to manage their feelings and resolve minor disputes. Children respond well to instructions from staff. They are reminded how to keep themselves safe, both within the environment and outside. Children are reminded to slow down in the setting to avoid accidents and use their 'walking feet'.

Staff understand where children are at in their learning and development. They recognise the impact COVID-19 has had on children's social and emotional development and speech and language development. As a result, staff accurately identify children's next learning steps and implement targeted approaches to achieve children's individual goals.

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

• Staff have a good awareness of children's starting points. Regular observations and children's current interests allow staff to plan a curriculum that supports what children need to learn next. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress from their individual starting points.
• Children are supported well to develop a love of books. Storytelling is used to extend children's language as they talk about what words mean and expand their vocabulary. Staff are skilled at capturing children's interest in stories. Older children listen intently as staff bring characters alive. Staff encourage children to make predictions about what will happen next.
• Staff promote mathematical development well through everyday activities. They encourage the children to count the number of children and number of plates and cups needed for snacks. Children begin to recognise numbers as they talk about the dates and months. This enables children to become familiar with numbers in the environment.
• Children's independence is promoted well. They have opportunities to practise putting on their shoes and coats. Independence is encouraged from an early age as children access their own drinks. They take turns with helping with the washing up following snack time and take pride in their 'jobs'. Staff praise children for their efforts and achievements. This raises their self-esteem.
• Parents spoken with express complete satisfaction with the care and education provided for their children. They acknowledge the staff act as advocates to support their children and acquire additional support when needed. They appreciate the care given to their children and are aware of the key-worker system in place.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders continued to support parents and children. They implemented the curriculum for those who still attended the setting. They ensured that for those who could not attend, their parents continued to receive information and guidance, to support children's education and welfare at home.
• Staff receive regular supervision from leaders and report they are well supported. Staff contribute to the evaluation of the setting and identify areas to improve. The manager places a high priority on the well-being of staff. As a result, staff feel valued and enjoy working at the setting. Leaders carry out observations of staff teaching practises to identify training needs. However, leaders do not fully support staff to make full use of everyday opportunities to extend children's learning. For example, they do not identify and disseminate good practice between colleagues to take children's education to a higher level.
• Children understand the importance of being active and how movement can contribute to healthy bodies. Staff talk about feeling hearts beat as children jump up and down. However, staff do not fully engage all parents, to make them more aware of how healthy eating and healthy packed lunches contribute to overall good health.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend parent's and children's understanding of how healthy eating habits contribute to their overall health
• strengthen ways of developing peer-on-peer observations to enable staff to share good practice.