Little Owls Nursery Middleton Laurel Bank

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and parents receive a warm welcome on arrival. The caring staff show a genuine interest in children's lives. They provide a calm and nurturing environment, which enables children to feel safe and secure. Children and babies settle quickly and demonstrate their strong bonds with staff. Staff know children extremely well and are attentive to their needs. Children are confident to explore and show a positive attitude to their learning.

Staff support older children to learn to take care of living creatures, such as children carefully handle chicks. In the garden, children compare the size of the carrots and pumpkins they have grown. They use their increasing memory and recall of how they were seeds and that seeds need the sun and water to grow. Babies relish the opportunity to bathe the dolls, benefiting from the soothing water and sensory experience. Toddlers demonstrate their confidence as they eagerly invite the inspector into their play, sharing the pretend food.

Older children develop their smaller hand muscles as they competently use the sticky tape dispenser and use scissors to cut paper. They create their own artwork and confidently describe what they are drawing. Children form strong friendships. Staff help them to learn to play cooperatively and behave well. Children understand the golden rules that are gently reinforced by the staff.

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

• The manager and staff are committed to providing high-quality care and education for all children. They have developed an inclusive curriculum that supports all children and their individual learning needs. Staff use additional funding appropriately. For instance, the manager identifies and buys resources to meet children's individual learning needs.
• Staff go above and beyond in their commitment to ensuring that children are safe and their needs are met. Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and for those children who speak English as an additional language, is strong. Staff use their expertise to implement strategies while they wait for outside agencies to make their assessments. Interventions are precisely targeted and teaching is consistent. As a result, all children make good progress in their learning.
• Children's communication and language skills are extended and supported well. Staff teach children new words and use signing to build strong foundations for listening and speaking. This helps children to gain the confidence to engage in meaningful conversations. Babies and some toddlers communicate through gestures and the sounds of their voices. Staff interpret their wants and needs well, while also repeating sounds and modelling single words to encourage their speaking skills.
• Overall, staff organise adult-led activities well. For instance, children thoroughly enjoy their speech and language session. However, very occasionally, children who are participating in the session and staff's attention is distracted due to other activities going on around them. This means that sometimes children's focus is not consistently maintained.
• Children learn about healthy lifestyles. They have access to plenty of space outside, where they can run and happily challenge their physical skills. They grow their own produce, including strawberries, carrots and pumpkins, and benefit from nutritious meals.
• Staff frequently use mathematical language, such as 'big, small' and 'fast' as children play. However, not all staff make frequent use of numbers or counting during children's play to extend their early mathematical skills fully.
• Children learn about different countries' traditions, events and celebrations beyond their own. They explore positive cultural images, books and resources and learn to value the differences and similarities. For instance, parents help staff and children to learn more about Eid and the Buddhist festival of Wesak. This helps children to gain a good understanding of the wider world.
• The manager has high expectations of the staff team. She provides very good support through peer observations, one-to-one supervisions and team meetings, to help enhance their good practice even further.
• Parents are very complimentary about the support and communication they receive from staff. Staff visit children at home before they start at the setting. This gives parents the opportunity to talk about the needs of their child and helps children to feel safe and secure. Parents comment that since their children have attended, their language development and confidence have improved.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve the organisation of adult-led focused group activities further, so that children fully benefit from these opportunities and their learning is not interrupted
• support staff to develop children's early mathematical skills and knowledge, paying particular attention to counting skills and using numbers.