Little Gruffalos (Hemsworth)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, settled and secure at this fun and welcoming setting. Children form strong bonds with staff, who are caring and friendly. Staff provide good support for children's personal, social and emotional development. Children learn to share as they pretend to make ice creams in the sand tray. They take turns as they choose which song to sing at circle time. Staff teach children the importance of being kind to their friends and other living things as they carefully carry a snail that they have found in the enclosed garden.

Children benefit from secure daily routines and prompts from staff about what to expect next. This helps children to feel emotionally secure. Children delight in their own achievements. Staff praise and encourage them as they travel along balancing beams in the garden. This helps to raise children's confidence and self-esteem. Staff are specific in their praise, so that children know exactly what they have achieved and are being praised for. Children are eager, enthusiastic and motivated to learn. They show great excitement as they play with their friends and staff during circle games using a parachute. Children grow in independence. They pour their own drinks and clear away their bowls at snack time.

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

• Children benefit from a wide range of interesting and challenging activities that cover all areas of learning. Staff plan good support for children's developing physical skills. Children develop their small muscles and coordination as they take part in craft activities using scissors, tape and dough.
• Children develop their core muscles and strength as they balance and climb on equipment in the garden. They practise different movements with hoops and on beams. This helps to build their strength and agility in preparation for later skills, such as early writing.
• Staff provide strong support for children's developing mathematical skills through everyday activities. Children count how many scoops of sand they dig and how many tomatoes are on the plants outside. They compare the weight of objects as they learn about what floats and sinks in the water tray.
• Overall, staff support children's developing communication and language. They teach children to use their 'listening ears' to help support their listening and attention skills. However, staff do not consistently leave enough time for children to respond when asking them questions.
• Children enjoy taking part in singing, stories and rhymes. Staff repeat back to children what they say. This helps children to know that they are understood and that their contributions are valued.
• The manager has extensive experience of supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and of working with other professionals to support children's needs. The nursery has established partnerships with local schools to help provide a smooth transition for children on to the next stage of their learning.
• Children learn about the wider world outside the setting. They find out about roles in the local community through visits from local firefighters and community police officers. Children take part in a toothbrushing scheme and in storytelling sessions from the local library.
• The manager supports staff's practice well through observations and constructive feedback. She supports staff's continuous professional development through training and supervision meetings. The manager encourages staff to reflect on their practice and identify areas for further development.
• Since the last inspection, staff have completed training on how to plan support for children's learning. This has increased their confidence in being able to assess where individual children are in their development and identify what they want them to learn next.
• Overall, partnerships with parents are strong. Parents praise the nursery staff and say that their children are happy and settled. However, staff do not consistently share detailed and frequent information about children's activities and progress with parents.
• Staff gather parents' feedback and views and reflect on children's experiences. This information, together with the views of staff, is fed into an action plan for continuous improvement at the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children with enough time, when questioned, to respond and to formulate their thinking, words and ideas
• strengthen ways to provide detailed information more frequently to parents about what their children have been doing and learning.