Little Hens Childcare Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy in this warm and welcoming setting. Staff spend time talking to parents to gather any information needed to ensure each child has a happy day. Children receive a warm welcome on arrival. Staff ensure they are on hand to provide comfort and reassuring cuddles when needed, to help children separate from their parents and carers. Children feel safe and secure in the nurturing environment. Staff build strong bonds with children and know them exceptionally well. They ensure all children receive the individual support and care they need to make good progress.

Children are excited to learn and thoroughly enjoy exploring the learning opportunities staff prepare. For example, they giggle with delight while splashing with their hands in water and ice. Babies and toddlers develop their fine motor skills as they explore. For instance, they use hammers as they try to break the ice, and staff model pinching and pulling to release the flowers that are frozen inside. Children demonstrate good levels of persistence even when faced with a challenge. Staff give consistent praise and encouragement. This helps to promote children's self-esteem, and even very young children clap their hands at their own achievements. Children learn to show kindness to others and share. Staff are good role models and skilfully encourage young children to begin to share and play alongside each other. They reinforce good manners, such as saying 'please' and 'thank you', which children begin to repeat when making requests.

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

• Children benefit from frequently hearing well-read stories. Toddlers listen intently to staff, who encourage them to participate. For instance, toddlers match the funny faces they see in the story. Staff point out the illustrations and label them to help babies to develop their vocabulary. Toddlers begin to use three- and four-word sentences in context as they point to a picture and say, 'It's a balloon.'
• Staff are extremely supportive to children and help them to manage their emotions with kindness and understanding. They use gentle reminders to reinforce their expectations of children's behaviour. Staff act as good role models to children. They engage in cooperative play with children to support them as they learn to share and take turns.
• Staff utilise the local community particularly well to provide children with new experiences. For instance, children enjoy trips to a nearby farm to learn about young animals and visit the local community café to interact with other members of the village. Staff take children to local play areas daily for physical activity in the fresh air. These experiences help children to make connections with their environment and learn about the world around them.
• All children, including children requiring additional support, make good progress.
• Staff have excellent knowledge of their key children. They are able to identify and talk about children's current stage of learning and their planned next steps. They work with outside agencies to ensure children receive the individual care and support they need to help them make the best possible progress.
• Parents speak very highly about the setting. They praise the staff for the stimulating experiences they provide and comment on the rapid progress children make. Parents talk about the reassurance they receive that their children are happy and well cared for through the 'amazing' daily communication staff provide. Parents appreciate the regular opportunities to talk with their child's key person during parents' evenings.
• Leaders have given excellent consideration to improving staff's confidence in recognising and responding to safeguarding concerns. They have applied effective methods to provide staff with ongoing support to continue to develop their knowledge. For instance, they ask staff to reflect on a monthly safeguarding scenario and share as a group the course of action they would take. This helps to continuously build on staff's safeguarding awareness.
• Staff receive regular training opportunities, both in-house and through an online training service. However, leaders have not fully established a highly effective method for feeding back areas for improvement to raise the quality of teaching to an even higher level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide staff with more accurate performance feedback to raise the quality of education to an even higher level.