Little Leaders Rayners Lane

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children run in happily to this warm and welcoming nursery. They form strong relationships with the caring practitioners who look after them. Children behave well and demonstrate good listening skills with their peers and the practitioners. Practitioners model positive behaviour when speaking to each other and are always courteous and polite. Practitioners use a range of positive behaviour management techniques to support children's behaviour. These include, turn-taking timers and how to have kind hands with their friends. Older children use these strategies autonomously in their play to solve conflict with their peers. For example, when they want to play with the same toy, they will collect the sand timer to 'give them both a turn'.

Practitioners foster an environment where children thrive on being independent in their learning and self-care routines. All children have free access to the resources and are given choices in their play. Children confidently demonstrate a range of skills, such as dressing themselves, toileting and serving their own food. Preschool children make very good helpers and enjoy being given responsibilities in their classroom. Children dress up as waiters as they wheel their trolley to hand out the bowls at mealtimes.

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

• Communication and language development is promoted at this nursery. Practitioners model language as they chat to the children. Key vocabulary is repeated for children to learn. This helps children make good progress in this area. Babies enjoy singing familiar songs in small groups. They mimic actions in time with the beat. The practitioners skilfully engage their interest by using props from a box.
• Parents are happy with the nursery. They know who to report concerns to and feel listened to by the manager. They comment that the practitioners care about their children and that their children make good progress here. Parents are involved in their children's development through regular communication. They have opportunities to share information about their child outside of the nursery.
• Practitioners have a good knowledge of their key children and care about their development. They use what they know about the children to plan for their next steps. Practitioners comment that they are proud of what the children achieve with them. Children are kept busy with a wide range of resources. However this does not extend to the garden outside. Practitioners understand the importance of daily physical play outside for young children, but this does not always takes place. The large garden has plenty of potential for extending children's development and learning experiences, but this is not yet fully utilised.
• Leaders and managers are supportive to their practitioners. They encourage practitioners to continue their professional development. Practitioners have opportunities to attend regular training and are enthusiastic to implement new ideas into the nursery. For example, after the baby room leader attended a course about working with babies, she redesigned the room to reflect her new knowledge. Babies are given opportunities to access some resources easily and some that will challenge their physical development. This helps them to learn independence and problem-solving skills from a young age.
• Overall, the managers are constantly reflective and have high expectations for the children. They identify areas to develop in the nursery. From this, they set actions to improve learning opportunities for the children. In their enthusiasm to provide a challenging curriculum for toddlers, practitioners sometimes plan activities that are not best matched to the ages and stages of development of the children and that are pitched above the children's learning level.
• Managers and practitioners promote children's emotional development. They recognise that children need to be happy to be able to learn. They focus on creating a relaxing environment that children feel calm in. Children experience yoga and meditation sessions which supports them to manage their feelings and control their body. Children behave well.
• Practitioners use care routines very well to help children feel emotionally secure. They tell babies what is going to happen next, for example, they talk to babies while changing their nappy.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider that all children have daily access to outdoor play to promote healthy living and support their physical development
• improve activity planning so that tasks are more closely matched to the needs and abilities of each child.