Little Seedlings Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff at the nursery are very kind and nurturing. They respond quickly to children's individual needs and offer lots of cuddles and kind words. New babies are very well settled, and all staff get to know their routines for feeding and sleeping. The key-person system is well embedded, and children's emotional well-being is of high priority. Staff implement clear rules and boundaries across the nursery, and children follow instructions well. Older children remind each other about the importance of saying 'thank you' when they give out the cutlery at lunchtime. They are learning about what is expected of them at nursery.

Leaders provide children with an ambitious and interesting curriculum. Children's communication and language development is particularly well promoted through narration, songs and stories. Leaders recognise that not all children learn at the same pace and make good use of visuals, objects of reference and signing for those who need extra support. Babies learn a bank of key words and the corresponding signs. As children move through the rooms, staff extend their word count and teach them to form sentences with what they have learned. By the time children get to pre-school, they speak clearly and fluently using a range of vocabulary. They are confident and articulate communicators.

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

• Leaders have an excellent understanding of how young children learn. They focus on a play-based curriculum that is adapted to include what children need to learn next. Leaders create initiatives such as children's 'suitcases', which are their individual banks of knowledge that travel with them through the nursery. Each room then adds to children's suitcases, extending their skills and knowledge sequentially. This ensures all children make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff get to know children well and have a good understanding of their interests and what they need to learn next. Overall, they implement these well into the different learning experiences. However, staff do not always recognise when some children need more direct interactions to help them achieve their next steps during play. This means that, at times, some children spend too long wandering without support to enhance their learning.
• The procedures for supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well embedded. Leaders implement a bespoke programme of support and use additional funding wisely, based on children's unique needs. Close partnerships with external agencies mean that leaders already have a bank of strategies to implement while children wait for their referrals. Children with SEND make good progress in their development.
• Children's physical development is promoted well. They have learned to use the see-saw independently and use words such as up, down and round to describe their different movements. Children use the obstacle course with ease and skilfully balance on different sized platforms and at different heights. They are developing good strong muscles and coordination skills, which contribute to their overall good health.
• Pre-school children demonstrate a lovely attitude to learning when staff teach them facts about different minibeasts. Children are fascinated to learn about the lifespan of a black garden ant. They place plastic garden ants alongside the picture in the book to make comparisons and discuss their characteristics. Children are developing good listening skills and are eager to learn.
• Staff implement the curriculum for mathematics well and have a good understanding of what they want children to learn. They use mathematical language such as small, big and tall when building structures to help children use the words in context. Younger children confidently join in with number rhymes and older children enthusiastically count from 1 to 20 with one-for-one correspondence. Children are developing some of the skills needed for school.
• Parents are happy with the quality of care provided and comment that staff are 'wonderful'. They receive some information about the curriculum, but not all parents are aware of children's next steps, how they can promote learning at home or how additional funding is being used. This hinders the continuity in children's care and learning.
• Leaders have robust procedures in place for supporting staff development. They have a strong supervision, coaching and mentoring cycle to ensure staff's performance is monitored continuously. Staff access professional development opportunities, such as training, based on children's needs. They work together as a team to disseminate good practice and share what they learn on training. This helps staff to provide a good quality of education for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to recognise when some children need more direct support to develop the skills they need to learn next
• provide parents with more specific information about what children are learning, how they can extend this at home and how additional funding is used.