Little Pearls Nursery Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome when they arrive at nursery each morning. The nursery provides a home-from-home environment where children feel safe and secure. Staff know children and their families well, and children build strong relationships with staff and each other. Staff support babies to feel emotionally secure. They show genuine affection and care, helping children develop secure attachments. Staff develop children's independence through well-established daily routines, which help children to understand what is happening next and how to respond. Children behave well. Staff support children with understanding their emotions and those of others. Children show they are happy and play cooperatively together, sharing resources, without support.

Leaders and managers create an ambitious curriculum with clear progression. Staff deploy themselves well. They offer assistance and take all opportunities to extend children's learning. For instance, when making bracelets, staff ask children to find the beads with letters from their names. Staff then support children to sequence the letters. Children enjoy creating roles in imaginative games. Staff join in playfully, for example, driving them in an imaginary car. Staff plan activities around themes, taking into account children's interests. Children follow instructions and listen attentively to staff. They demonstrate a keenness to learn and are eager to join in with all learning opportunities staff provide.

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

• Staff develop children's communication and language through back-and-forth interactions and meaningful conversations. Children from the youngest age are taught to use signing, which provides a visual link to spoken words. All children develop their vocabulary and deepen their understanding of the meaning of words. Children are confident in communicating their wants and needs.
• The nursery has effective parent partnerships. Parents comment that their children thrive at nursery. They have 'complete trust and confidence in the care, love and learning' their children receive.
• Staff promote children's developing independence throughout all age groups. For example, they provide opportunities for children to lead and make decisions about their own play. At mealtimes, staff demonstrate to babies how to lift and hold a spoon, while the oldest children serve themselves.
• Leaders and managers are ambitious and clear about what they want the children to learn and be able to do. They are both responsive and reflective. For example, they give careful thought to how staff are deployed to effectively supervise children's play and extend their learning. Staff are provided with opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills, which reflects positively on their practice and children's educational outcomes.
• Staff have a good knowledge of children's abilities and their next steps. However, at times, some staff are not fully aware of the learning intent when implementing activities and do not adapt learning to meet all children's needs. This means that support is not always targeted effectively to help ensure children make the best possible progress.
• Staff take effective measures to promote children's safety and well-being. For example, headcounts are conducted when moving from one area into another as part of the risk assessment procedure. Staff teach children how to be safe while managing the stairs. This means children are developing an awareness for their own personal safety.
• Children are keen to join in with the learning opportunities provided by staff. However, on occasion, staff do not promptly support all children to engage fully in their learning. As a result, sometimes, quieter children lose interest and move away.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to progress in their physical development. Outside, children enjoy developing their climbing skills and riding on bikes. Children show precision and confidence in their fine-motor skills. For example, the youngest children enjoy mark making with flowers and paint, and older children create bracelets by threading small beads, demonstrating good hand-eye coordination.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• sharpen staff's understanding of curriculum intent to focus their interactions more precisely on extending children's learning even further
• ensure all children consistently receive the same support as their more confident peers to maintain their focus and engagement in learning.