Little Squirrels Play Forest

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children learn to explore their environment and develop their curious and creative nature at this nursery. When it rains, there are plenty of resources that they select and use as they splash in puddles, collect water in containers and experiment with it. During older children's spontaneous play, staff introduce them to information about mathematics and literacy. This supports children to build their knowledge ready for the future stages of their education. Babies receive kind and sensitive care from staff who engage them in play.

The knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff give children practical and emotional support. They promote children's thinking by sharing information and posing carefully considered questions. Children develop confidence to share their thoughts. They have lots of ideas and suggestions to make. Staff value the way each individual child learns. At times, when children feel unsettled or upset, staff comfort them and acknowledge their feelings. This helps children to build trusting bonds with the staff and to feel safe and secure. Daily routines are very flexible to meet children's individual needs. For example, children are able to attend snack and mealtimes when they are ready and feel hungry. This allows them to follow through their play until a point of satisfactory completion.

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

• Leaders and managers strive to offer children care and education based on their strong understanding of evidence and research. They explain how they and staff encourage children to explore, create and develop their individuality and a positive sense of themselves.
• Children benefit from a language-rich environment. Staff give children plenty of opportunities to develop their speech and language skills. Children frequently share stories which staff read with skill and enthusiasm. Consequently, children become skilled communicators.
• Leaders prioritise staff training and support. Staff explain how inspired they are by the approaches leaders teach them to use. Staff show that they understand how children learn and use this knowledge well in their daily practice.
• Staff quickly identify any concerns about children's development. They work with parents and other professionals to put in place appropriate help and support. This helps children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to make progress in their learning.
• Relationships between staff and children demonstrate high levels of respect. Staff gently help children to learn how to manage their own feelings and to cooperate with others. When children struggle to share, staff help them to resolve their own conflicts.
• Staff provide plenty of opportunities for children to be active and to develop their strength and stamina. Children have spaces to move, climb and balance, both indoors and outdoors. Children develop their understanding of healthy eating, for example, as they make fruit kebabs with staff.
• Parents value the effort that staff put into knowing their individual children. Many parents speak of the unique activities that staff design based around their children's individual interests. They explain how keen their children are to go to nursery each day. Leaders and staff provide information to help parents understand how they can make the biggest impact on their children's development at home. Leaders work to resolve any minor issues or concerns that parents raise.
• Children develop their independence. For example, they serve their own healthy meals and learn to manage their own self-care, such as toileting. However, staff do not give children enough guidance or information for them to understand how they can contribute to maintaining a sufficiently organised learning environment for all to enjoy. For example, staff tend to tidy up after children. They rearrange the shoes which are left strewn on the floor.
• A settling-in procedure is in place for new children. This allows children to begin to become familiar with the nursery and staff to get to know them and their individual needs. Despite this, new children sometimes struggle to settle with ease. Staff give them emotional support. However, this detracts from staff being able to fully deliver effective teaching to other children. When this happens, the noise level indoors increases. This affects children's ability to focus and engage comfortably at these times.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop strategies to help children to understand what they can do to ensure that their play environment remains safe and inviting for all
• review the arrangements for settling new children in to the nursery to ensure that staff consistently have sufficient time available to sustain high levels of interactions and support for all children's learning.