Little Leaders Childcare Framlingham

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed by their key person as they arrive at the nursery. They readily leave their parents at the door and are quick to join their friends. They join in with a range of interesting activities provided. For example, toddlers use role-play toothbrushes and toothpaste to clean their doll's teeth, while babies smile with delight as staff share books with them. Older children enjoy playing outside in the garden with their friends. They learn to use different tools, such as vegetable mashers, to help strengthen their hand muscles. This helps to develop the foundations for handwriting later on.

Children are familiar with the routines of the day. They know what is expected of them and respond well. Children build good friendships with each other. They are polite, caring, and share resources well. When children struggle to unzip their coats, their friends are happy to help them.

Children are curious and explore both the indoor and outdoor environment with confidence. For example, in the garden, children develop their physical skills as they climb down the steps to the bottom play area. Children learn to take risks as they choose to navigate the steep slope with confidence. Once at the bottom they can watch ducks swim by in the stream.

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

• Staff know children well. They gather detailed information from parents when they join the nursery. This helps staff to know the children's starting points. They regularly observe what children can do and plan purposely for their future learning. This means that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress.
• Leaders have a clear understanding of what it is that they want the children to learn before moving on to the next steps in their education, which for most is school. However, new staff are not always clear about what children need to learn. This means they do not always promote and extend children's learning consistently.
• Staff support children's communication and language development effectively. For example, when young children use single words, staff repeat the words back, adding extra words into the sentence. This helps very young children to develop their understanding of how words link together to make a sentence. Staff listen to children and ask them questions, allowing them time to think and respond.
• Children learn to problem solve. Older children successfully recall the ingredients needed to make play dough. They delight in mixing them together. When children bring a colander to mix their play dough in, staff help them to stop and think about what would happen to the flour with the holes in their bowl. Children learn basic mathematical concepts as they discuss more and less when adding in water and oil. Children successfully remember that mixing two colours can create the colour they desire. Young children demonstrate good concentration skills as they work out how to open the different locks and latches on a puzzle, to discover the pictures inside.
• Toddlers enjoy using their senses during activities, such as baking a cake. They learn to mix the ingredients with support from staff. Staff provide a narrative as they add in the different ingredients. Children enjoy sampling some of the bananas that they are using to help them understand the flavour of the cake. This helps children to make connections to the finished product.
• Partnerships with parents are particularly strong. Information is shared with parents through an online platform. Parents speak of the excellent progress their children have made and how well prepared they are for their future learning. They state that the staff and setting are 'beyond exceptional'.
• The management team and the relatively new manager strive to provide high-quality, inclusive care and education. Working together with the staffing team, they have reflected on the organisation and layout of the rooms to identify how to enhance children's experiences. As a result of the changes implemented, they have noticed these changes best support the individual needs of the children attending.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus on supporting new staff to ensure that they are clear about what they want children to learn, to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high standard.