Little Lancing Day Nursery and Forest School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted by kind and caring staff. There are strong bonds between staff and children. All staff know children well, including their likes and dislikes as well as their routines. This helps children to feel safe and secure at the provision. Staff have high expectations for children's learning and behaviour. Children have a clear understanding of the boundaries and what is expected of them. They are curious and keen learners, who are eager to explore the nursery.

Staff help children to learn about the natural world through their regular forest-school sessions. Children enjoy exploring the natural area and staff help to build on their skills, such as using tools, each week. Staff celebrate each child's unique achievements and recognise that every child will have different needs.

Children develop their imagination skills through play. They eagerly invite staff to join their play. For example, children develop role play around being at the hairdressers as they enjoy styling the staff's hair. Children develop a love of reading that is skilfully supported by staff. For example, staff happily re-read favourite stories to children throughout the day.

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

• The passionate and dedicated manager has a clear vision for the provision. The manager explains that she wants to create a home from home for all children. This helps children and their families to feel included at the setting.
• The manager has implemented an ambitious curriculum that is unique to the children in the setting and builds on what children know and can do. This supports children in making good progress from their individual starting points. However, there are occasional inconsistencies in some staff's understanding of the curriculum aims, which impact on the expectations for some children's overall learning and development.
• Staff introduce children to a wide and broad vocabulary as they play. For example, as children play 'sound bingo', staff label the different objects clearly for children, such as 'fire alarm' and 'hammer'. In addition, staff model the correct pronunciation of words and give children time to respond during conversations. As a result, children's language skills are supported well.
• Staff develop children's independence skills through their everyday routines. For example, children take pride in being able to put on their own waterproof clothing before heading outside. This helps children to become confident in their skills and develops children's self-confidence and self-belief that they can do it.
• Children's hygiene needs are, sometimes, inconsistently met. For example, some children learn how to wipe their faces after snack. However, sometimes, staff do not fully support them in ensuring that they have cleaned their faces entirely. In addition, some children are not fully supported in learning how to wipe their noses effectively. This impacts on children's understanding of good hygiene practices.
• Staff skilfully teach children about emotions and empathy by building on children's interests. For example, while reading favourite stories, they talk about how the different characters feel throughout the story. Children are then able to relate this to their own experiences of emotions and this helps them to begin to label their different emotions.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have their needs meet well by staff. They adapt their provision as needed to ensure that children with SEND receive the support they need. For example, children take part in speech and language group activities to help to close the gap in their communication development.
• Staff feel very well supported by the management team. They find that supervision meetings are helpful and aimed at supporting their well-being. As a result, staff are not overwhelmed by the workload and are able to share their thoughts and ideas with the management team.
• Parents highly praise the provision. They comment on the good levels of communication between themselves and staff. Parents note that staff provide ideas for home learning, such as collecting natural items on an autumnal walk. This supports children's ongoing learning and further develops the partnerships between parents and staff.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's understanding of the curriculum aims
• review hygiene routines to ensure that staff consistently teach children good hygiene practices.