Little Minnows

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and confident in this nursery. They are secure in their strong relationships with staff, and eagerly enter the nursery after they say goodbye to their parents. Managers provide a high-quality education. The curriculum is ambitious for all children, and supports children to progress across all areas of learning. Staff speak in soft voices and guide children to express their ideas and opinions in meaningful conversations. They ensure that children build a rich vocabulary by introducing new words into conversations, and children communicate with confidence. For example, babies enjoy babbling and making sounds, and pre-school children speak in complex sentences. Staff have high expectations for children and activities are well planned. Staff give children time to develop their games, imagination and creative thinking skills. For example, they support older children to enjoy pretending to be teachers and read a book to others in the group. Children make good friends, play together well and happily share and take turns.

Children of all ages enjoy lots of time to explore outdoors. Older children develop core strength and agility, as they balance on low beams or play on a tyre swing hanging from a tree. Staff support children to take time to reflect and relax in quiet areas outdoors. They guide children to understand and express their emotions through discussions and reading books.

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

• Managers have created a curriculum which is well sequenced and builds on children's prior knowledge. Staff give children opportunities to practise what they know and can do. For example, they support pre-school children to extend an activity. Children initially printed pine cones into dough. With staff support, they extended this activity into creating dough 'cakes' which they place onto oven trays that they had independently lined with muffin cases. Children are curious, engaged and make good progress in their learning and development. However, managers do not ensure that staff make best use of all opportunities to help children learn about numbers, counting, shapes and measurement.
• Babies are confident and cheerful in their indoor and outdoor learning environments. Staff create age-appropriate activities. For example, they guide babies to develop their senses and hand-to-eye coordination as they explore textured card, discovering 'rough' and 'smooth'. Staff take babies on trips to the local park where they enjoy playing in the grass and observing wildlife. However, managers do not always provide opportunities for babies to develop their strength, balance and coordination further.
• Leaders and managers have developed positive relationships with parents. They communicate with parents in a variety of ways and welcome them into the nursery for meetings and special events. Parents are happy with the good progress their children make in their learning and development and recommend the nursery to others. However, at times, not all parents receive up-to-date information about the activities and experiences available to their children, to keep them fully informed.
• Staff provide good support for children who speak English as an additional language. They use effective strategies to guide children to develop language and communication skills. For example, staff ensure they learn basic vocabulary from children's first languages to better support them to communicate and feel confident in the nursery.
• Leaders and managers have built a team of staff who are confident in their roles and enjoy coming to work. Staff feel supported by managers. They understand the curriculum that managers have created, and enjoy planning activities which stimulate children's interests and emerging needs. Leaders have created strong links with other early years professionals, to help them continually develop and improve their provision.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress. Staff are well supported by the special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator, who implements successful strategies for children's learning and development. Staff know the children in their care well and parents of children with SEND feedback positively about the care their children receive.
• Staff support children to develop their independence skills. At mealtimes, older children confidently pour their drinks and clear away their food. Staff guide pre-school children to enjoy outdoor sessions, where they make a fire and cook sausages to eat. Children are confident in the rules and routine and enjoy this experience. They sing songs around the fire as they wait for the food to cook.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make best use of all opportunities to help children learn about numbers, counting, shapes and measurement
• provide more opportunities for babies to develop their strength, balance and coordination further
• develop strategies to consistently inform parents about activities children do and why.