Little Men And Misses @ Roman Way, Redditch

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Babies and children are very happy and settled in this friendly nursery. Parents say how children love attending. Young babies quickly form close bonds with the staff, who are caring and nurturing. Older children welcome the positive interactions of the staff as they all play together. Staff have high expectations for children and are positive role models. Children understand the rules and boundaries, and respond well to the staff's gentle reminders about the expected behaviour. Older children have a clear understanding about right and wrong and articulately explain about this, such as not fighting with pillows or hurting insects.

Children gain good levels of independence. Staff provide babies and children with a good level of challenge, so they gain confidence in their own abilities and develop a can-do attitude. Babies learn to feed themselves and progress onto drinking from unlidded cups. Staff move babies onto using chairs with less support, in readiness for their move to the older room and to support their physical development. Two-year-old children learn to serve their own food and scrape their plates. Older children require little support from staff, as they manage their personal care routines.

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

• Leaders are reflective and accurately identify the strengths and areas of their practice to further develop. They monitor the quality of teaching well and provide staff with effective professional development. New staff and apprentices receive a rigorous induction to ensure they understand their role and responsibilities. Staff who are unqualified explain how leaders have fully supported them to develop their understanding of early years practice. They share how leaders are readily available to answer any questions they have and provide guidance. Staff deployment is effective to meet children's needs.
• Leaders have designed a curriculum that promotes a strong focus on children's communications skills and emotional development. They have identified how they can help children to build on their knowledge and skills from babies through to the pre-school. Overall, staff implement this well. However, they do not plan the outdoor learning environment as well as possible, so this reflects the ambitious curriculum across all seven areas and fully motivates children to play and learn. At times, children's learning becomes slightly repetitive and does not mirror the valuable learning experiences they have when they play indoors. This said, children thoroughly enjoy the opportunities for more risky play, such as stacking tyres and assessing whether it is safe to travel over them.
• An effective key-person system is in place and staff have a thorough knowledge of their key children. Overall, they support children to extend their knowledge and skills. However, staff do not make the best use of their observations of children's achievements to identify their most important learning needs. This means that teaching is not focused precisely on the key knowledge and skills that the children need to gain to build on what they already know and can do.
• Staff support children's communication and language development well, and children make good progress. Babies listen attentively and respond with actions and sounds to staff when they sing and interact with them. Two-year-old children recall phrases from familiar stories and talk about the 'big bad wolf'. Children who speak English as an additional language progress rapidly and become confident communicators. Older children explain their ideas clearly, such as how they will work together to transport water.
• Leaders have clear policies and procedures in place to promote children's health, and staff implement these well. Children enjoy the nutritious meals and snacks that the nursery provides. They always have access to drinking water. Leaders work with parents to ensure that children's packed lunches are nutritious. Older children learn about their body and the impact of exercise on their heart.
• Parent partnerships work well. Leaders and staff engage parents successfully from the onset. Leaders have developed very effective settling-in arrangements and partnership working to support parents and children in their first six weeks of attending the setting. This continues throughout the time children attend the nursery, for example through opportunities for parents to attend workshops and frequent updates about their child's progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff with their use of observations of children's achievements to inform their planning and teaching, so they support children's learning needs more precisely
• extend the planning for the outdoor environment so this provides children with ambitious learning experiences across the seven areas of learning.