Little Rays Daycare Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are kind and caring with the children. They have made significant changes to the learning environment, curriculum and staffing arrangements to ensure that all children have their individual needs met effectively. The staff are attentive to the children. They provide a welcoming and supportive environment, which is tailored to support each child's next steps in learning and overall development.

Children show that they are happy and feel safe in the pre-school environment. They demonstrate good curiosity skills that give them the confidence to play and explore. Children behave well and show they feel safe in their surroundings. They have formed trusting relationships with staff and enthusiastically invite them into their play. For example, as children play imaginatively in the sensory shed, they call to staff cheerfully to come and find them.

Staff plan a good range of experiences and activities to build on children's future skills well. For example, children learn perseverance as they use a range of tools to try and release the 'fossils' that have been created for them. Staff overall, encourage children's speaking and listening skills well. For example, children enjoy singing time and participate with staff who read and act out stories with them.

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

• The management team has made significant changes to the pre-school since the last inspection. The team has ensured that the learning environment is inclusive for all the children and revamped the curriculum to ensure that it is ambitious and designed to help all children succeed in life. This has had a positive impact on the children's care, education and learning.
• The management team and staff work well together. All staff have benefited from effective support, coaching and training to help them fully understand their roles and responsibilities for teaching and safeguarding children. This has helped all staff to be confident in the pre-school's policies and required safeguarding practices.
• Staff clearly know what they want children to learn. They have embedded the new curriculum effectively to support the children's development. Staff know how activities support the areas of learning well and they implement the learning intentions behind activities purposefully. The key-person approach is fully understood by the staff. It is well maintained and used well to ensure that all staff know what each child's next step is, so they can tailor learning to support this. Suitable provision is in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Staff engage well with children and offer an environment where they can hear language being used consistently. Staff provide a good narrative to children's play and ask a suitable number of questions to help children to think. However, at times, some staff's questioning is not fully effective in helping children to articulate what they know. Nevertheless, children are learning about the languages spoken around the world as the staff use these when counting children in from outside.
• Children are kind and considerate to each other, they play well together and are learning to share through the good use of sand timers. Staff provide children with praise and encouragement, which in turn supports the children's emotional development.
• Staff help children to be independent and do things for themselves. For instance, children are encouraged to put on their outdoor clothing, cut their own fruits at snack time, clear their plates at dinner and pour their own drinks. Children are learning about where some foods come from as they grow and harvest foods in the garden. However, staff do not consistently extend this learning for the children. For example, they do not help children to understand where the food they are eating comes from and how healthy eating affects our bodies.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff gather detailed information about the children when they first start with them. This helps them to learn where the children are in their development and gives them an oversight into their interests. Staff share learning achievements with parents to ensure that they are kept up to date on how their children are developing. Parents comment positively about the staff, their children's learning and how wonderful they feel the pre-school is.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's questioning techniques to help build on children's knowledge and skills to maximise their learning
• extend ways to help children understand the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.