Little Men And Misses @ Cookhill

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled at this welcoming and friendly nursery. They enter the nursery with confidence and are happy to see their friends. New children develop strong bonds with their key person because staff are kind, caring and attentive. Staff provide children with opportunities to learn about and care for living things. Children enjoy regular visits to the working farm in the grounds of the nursery. They collect eggs daily and enjoy feeding the lambs in the spring. Children use their imaginations as they make pretend ice cream cones using sand. They develop their physical skills as they negotiate different toy vehicles around the track in the garden, stopping at the pretend red traffic lights.

Staff have high expectations of children. They work closely with parents to ensure a common approach to children's care and learning needs. Children receive regular praise from staff as they play. This helps to keep them motivated and attempt to try new things. Children use good manners, saying 'please' and 'thank you' without any prompts. Children play harmoniously with each other. All children are making good progress in their learning. They are developing the skills that will help to promote their future learning.

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

• The quality of teaching is good. Staff provide children with a range of exciting and interesting opportunities that ignite children's curiosity for learning. For example, older children enjoy looking into mirrors and creating self-portrait pictures. Younger children excitedly explore in sand and soil, finding different animal figures as staff talk to them about their recent trip to the zoo and the animals they saw there.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. They engage children in meaningful conversations and discussions. Children show great delight at listening to familiar stories read by staff. Staff use good expressions when reading and include the children well. Younger children enjoy pointing to the pictures in the book and older children confidently answer questions about the story.
• Staff promote children's personal development well. Staff remind older children why they need to use a tissue to wipe their nose and then wash their hands to wash away the germs. Children help to set the table before mealtimes and serve themselves their food. Children of all ages are encouraged to take off their own shoes and put on their slippers as they come back in from outdoor play.
• Children's physical skills are promoted well. Babies have plenty of opportunities to crawl or cruise around furniture as they explore the room. Toddlers develop their large-muscle skills as they negotiate the garden, climbing up slopes and coming down slides. Older children practise their small-muscle skills using spray bottles to dispense paint. This helps to develop the muscles in their hands needed to successfully hold and use a pencil.
• Children behave well. They interact with each other and learn to share and cooperate with others. Staff provide good support to children to learn the rules of good behaviour. For example, staff talk to older children as they move around the nursery about being respectful to the younger children who are sleeping.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff share regular in-depth information to ensure that parents know what children are currently learning. This helps parents to extend children's learning at home. Parents spoken to on the day of inspection expressed their complete satisfaction with the nursery. They said that they would recommend the nursery to other parents.
• Managers and staff review the curriculum and ensure planning is focused on children's current interests and needs. Children are motivated in their play and enjoy their self-chosen activities from the well-resourced environment. However, staff's understanding of what they want children to learn during some planned adult-led activities is not always clear.
• Leaders and managers are passionate about providing good-quality care and education for all children. They have a good understanding of the early years foundation stage and strive to ensure that they meet the needs of all children in their care. Managers undertake regular supervisions and monitoring of staff practice. However, this has not yet helped staff to raise the already good teaching skills to the next level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's understanding of the curriculum intent, so they are clear about what they want children to learn from adult-led activities
• continue to support staff to build on their already good teaching skills to help raise their practice to the highest level.