Little Miss Muffets

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle well into this family orientated, homely environment. They are warmly welcomed by caring and friendly staff, who take the time to get to know each child and their families well. Staff forge close relationships with children and interactions are extremely positive. They recognise when children are tired or unwell and provide reassurance and comfort. Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure as they snuggle happily on staff's laps and eagerly seek them out to join in their play or to share what they have been doing. Children behave well. Even the younger children sit patiently as they wait for their turn to join in a game and recognise whose turn it is to go next. Older children learn the golden rules for behaviour, which staff link to a corresponding story. They learn to be kind, to listen and to look after their own and other peoples property.

Children's communication and language is given high priority and staff provide children with a language rich environment. Staff continually talk to the children and engage them in conversations. They ask questions and provide children with the time to respond. Staff working with the younger children model language and encourage children to respond to sounds and single words. Toddlers can name animals and mimic the noise that the animal makes. Staff swiftly recognise where there are gaps in children's communication and work closely with parents and outside agencies to ensure that children receive any additional support they may need.

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

• The setting benefits from a strong and effective management team. They understand that they bring different ideas and competences to their roles, and successfully complement each other's skills and knowledge. Managers have a good overview of what they want children to learn at each stage of their development and their expectations for children are high. They have developed a broad curriculum that prepares children for the next stage of their learning. They recognise and work to staff's strengths, and encourage them to continue with their own professional development to further enhance their knowledge.
• Staff benefit from regular supervision meetings. Managers monitor staff practice and provide ideas to help them improve. Staff comment that they feel valued and well supported by managers.
• Staff observe children and plan activities based on their individual interests and next steps for learning. However, at times, staff working with the youngest children do not fully implement this into practice. For example, children who are beginning to pull themselves up to stand are not consistently provided with activities to encourage this and are moved to sit at resources that are on the floor. In addition, staff do not always provide children with a wide enough range of activities to help to develop their natural curiosity.
• Older children are extremely confident. They eagerly talk to staff and their friends and share what they have been doing at home. They chat happily to visitors, ask them questions, and involve them in their play. They recognise the letters in their name and can name other items that begin with the same letter.
• Children are beginning to learn mathematical concepts. Younger children count as they play. Older children can recognise the number of dots on a dice and match it to the written number. They match patterns as they hang socks in pairs. However, sometimes, group activities are not organised well enough to ensure all children are able to get the very best from their learning.
• Transitions when children move through the nursery are extremely flexible to meet the individual needs of each child. Staff work closely with schools that children will move on to. They share information about children and where they are in their learning to ensure consistency.
• Children's health is given high priority. Managers research allergies and dietary requirements to ensure they are fully aware of them. They work closely with parents to ensure that children's safety is promoted at all times, including when they play with resources that contain food substances, such as flour in play dough.
• Parents are extremely pleased with the care and learning that their children receive. They comment that staff are caring and thoughtful and that they are attentive to children's individual needs. Although some parents receive information about their child's next steps for learning, these are not consistently updated for every child when their next steps change. This means that parents are not always fully aware of their child's current next steps to enable them to support children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff working with the younger children to provide more activities that engage them fully and support their next steps for learning
• consider the organisation of activities so that all children are able to participate and get the very best from them
• provide all parents with information about their child's next steps for learning when they are updated, to enable them to continue to support their child's learning at home.