Little Lions Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children's emotional needs are met well. If very young children become upset, they receive cuddles and a calm voice from staff to help them settle. When children move rooms in the nursery, staff provide them with familiar toys to help them settle into their new environment. Older children show that they enjoy looking at photos of themselves and their peers. Staff ask them questions to identify who they can see in the photos. This helps children to have a sense of belonging in the nursery.

Children who speak English as an additional language are supported to understand routines of the day and behaviour expectations. For instance, staff show children images and use gestures to support their understanding. This helps children to understand what is expected of them, such as to walk indoors and follow routines.

Younger children learn about different occupations. They copy staff when they are shown how to use a hammer to bang on bricks, showing good hand-eye coordination. Very young children are curious in their play. Staff give them experiences to explore different objects. This includes very young children using spatulas and their hands to bang on tin bowls, investigating how to make sounds. Additional funding that some children receive is used effectively to increase staff to promote children's behaviour and safety.

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

• The provider has made changes to the nursery that impacts positively on children's experiences. For example, she has divided the garden to provide very young children with their own enclosed play space that includes soft matting on the floor. This helps to promote their safety.
• Staff offer children nutritious snacks and drinks to promote their good health. They support children to learn about oral health. Children use brushes and large pretend teeth to practise brushing teeth. Staff talk to children to help them understand foods that are healthy for their teeth.
• Older children engage in team games to support their social skills and cooperation with others. This includes staff asking them to hold onto the edges of a parachute and to work together to lift the parachute up and down so a ball falls off. Children laugh and show excitement when the ball falls and the parachute blows in the wind.
• Parents are kept informed about their children's learning. For example, they have access to an online application where they can see photos of their children engaged in activities, along with how this links to different areas of learning. Children are supported to make links between home and the nursery. For instance, older children borrow a soft toy lion to take home. They bring this back into the nursery with photos of the toy lions time in their home, to share with their peers.
• Routines during the day are embedded in practice. Older children show that they understand these. They listen to staff's instructions, such as when they ask them to line up at the door in preparation to go outdoors and to wash their hands. This helps to promote positive behaviour.
• Overall, staff support children's communication skills well. They introduce repetitive stories and rhymes to support children's communication skills. This is particularly effective for children who speak English as an additional language to understand English. However, staff do not support some children to build on their early speaking skills. For example, they do not help all children to hear the correct words for objects or remove barriers to communication, such as dummies, to enable children to copy words they hear.
• Staff plan activities to secure children's understanding of the stories they hear. For instance, they provide children with craft activities to make images of a gingerbread figure when they hear stories about this. This helps children to make connections in their learning and to be creative.
• The curriculum to support older children's independence is effective. Children select toys and resources to play with. They choose their own bowls, cups and food at snack time and pour their own drinks. However, staff do not fully implement the curriculum outdoors as effectively for all children, to help build on their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the support for children's early speaking skills
• support staff to strengthen the implementation of the curriculum outdoors to build on children's learning.