Little Tigers

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff have a warm approach towards children when they arrive at the setting. This helps children to settle well and separate easily from their parents. Children confidently approach staff when they need comfort and reassurance. They demonstrate that they feel emotionally safe and secure.

The manager and staff have an ambitious curriculum in place to support all children's learning. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works effectively in partnership with outside agencies and parents to ensure that all children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive good support. This has a positive impact on the quality of education that children receive. The manager uses additional funding to support children's literacy. For example, staff have set up a lending library for parents and children to use. This helps to support children's early literacy development successfully.

Staff are good role models and have high expectations of children's behaviour. The interactions between staff and children are warm and positive. Staff are polite in their interactions with children, who, in turn, demonstrate politeness to their friends. Children learn how to behave and treat each other with respect.

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

• The manager, who is also the SENCo, is passionate about her role and monitors children with SEND and those who need extra support effectively. She supports staff and ensures that they provide intervention swiftly to help close any gaps in children's learning.
• Children learn in a clean environment. Staff encourage children to tidy up in preparation for mealtimes. They teach children the importance of washing their hands, particularly before eating. Staff use mealtimes to encourage children's independence. For example, staff help children to serve their own meals, gather their cutlery and use it well. This helps to extend children's independence in preparation for their next steps in education and school.
• Children eat nutritious meals. These are prepared by the setting's cook, who has an in-depth knowledge of children's allergies and dietary requirements. There are good systems in place to ensure that children receive food that supports their individual needs.
• The youngest children choose songs to sing with staff, who model the actions to nursery rhymes. Children engage, smile and laugh at these times. This helps to support children's early listening and understanding skills.
• Some staff are skilful when conversing with toddlers and the oldest children, particularly during group activities. However, at other times, some staff do not always recognise other opportunities to extend their interactions with children to support children's communication and language even more.
• Staff organise resources and experiences to support children's physical development. The youngest children climb on age-appropriate indoor apparatus. Staff engage them, and children enjoy sifting and pouring sand into containers. Other children pull their fingers through sensory materials, such as a cornflour mixture. Older children enjoy balancing on beams in the outside area and riding bicycles. Children develop their small and large muscles in fun ways.
• Staff say that that they enjoy working at the setting. They have regular supervision sessions and receive feedback on their practice. The manager has put robust recruitment procedures in place to ensure that all staff employed to work with children are suitable to do so. Staff receive a comprehensive induction to make sure that they understand their roles and responsibilities.
• The manager and staff form good relationships with parents. They gather information about children before they start. They use this information to begin to plan activities and experiences for children. This supports children to make good progress from their starting points in learning.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents comment that staff are professional and approachable. They say that they are happy with the progress their children make at the setting. Parents praise staff for the regular updates they provide about their children's development, which helps to promote children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• engage children more effectively in conversations and extend their communication and language skills further.