Little Jungle School of Early Childhood

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily and excited for their day at this exceptional nursery. They confidently greet staff by name, and staff enthusiastically share the stimulating activities on offer with children and parents. Leaders have created a rich and meaningful curriculum that is extremely well sequenced, and all staff implement this effortlessly. Staff provide warm and caring relationships with children. Children listen intently to adults and respond well to their instructions.

Children are highly motivated learners and are eager to join in activities. Staff respond to children's behaviour exceptionally well. Older children learn to manage their own conflicts. Staff are superb role models and demonstrate a deeply embedded, positive attitude to play and learning. As a result, children play wonderfully together and show kindness and consideration to their peers.

Staff captivate children's attention while reading stories to them. They use interactive stories to introduce a variety of characters to children to support their understanding of different people and communities around them. Children are provided with a wealth of experiences to broaden their knowledge of the world. They benefit from visiting the local park in the area. Children use their acquired knowledge of playgrounds to share their own ideas and thoughts on ways to develop their own nursery garden.

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

• The manager plans a meticulous curriculum that focuses on developing children's resilience and independence. All staff understand what children already know and can do, and use expert teaching methods to extend this. For example, two-year-old children enjoy exploring a project about paper. They investigate the different ways paper can be used and make their own creations. Supportive staff skilfully involve children's interest in movement. They encourage children to look at how they can make their paper move and introduce early positional language such as 'up' and 'down'. Older children show interest in mechanics. Together they plan how they are going to create their own 'zip-line' and work cooperatively together, sharing their own thoughts and ideas.
• Young children learn to serve their own food and drink at mealtimes. They confidently scrape their plates when they have finished. Children enjoy being given a 'special helper' responsibility and excitedly take a trip to the kitchen to discuss the menu of the day. Children excitedly collect ingredients from the kitchen and discuss the different properties of these with their friends. They discuss the different colours and talk about what they may taste like. This supports children to develop healthy lifestyles.
• Children enjoy being physically active in their play. They confidently learn to manage risks when creating their own slide in the garden. They skilfully balance wooden logs together and walk up and down. Children support each other and hold each other's hands for support.
• Staff value partnership working with parents and other professionals. Staff know all children extremely well and confidently discuss children's individual needs. They skilfully use children's interests to support them with next steps in learning. As a result, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make substantial progress in their learning.
• Partnerships with parents are exceptional. Parents feel incredibly involved in their child's learning and development at the nursery. They highlight that the individual care and attention their children receive is wonderful. Parents explain that the caring and inclusive culture of the nursery is fantastic. They explain their children become very excited when they arrive and describe staff as 'friendly' and 'loving'.
• Staff report they feel very well supported by leaders and managers. They benefit from an extensive range of training opportunities to support them in their role. For example, staff take the lead on delivering workshops for parents to support their own progression in a managerial role.
• Leadership across the nursery is inspirational. The deeply embedded reflective culture ensures that all children receive the best start to their early education. This is a shared value with all staff. Leaders and managers create a supportive ethos, where all staff feel empowered.