Little Tots Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff build strong relationships with children and families in this home-from-home nursery. Staff plan tailored next steps in learning for children to ensure that they continue to meet their milestones. Leaders and staff put in place early support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They work with external advisers and signpost families to valuable support and community groups. Parents and carers offer high praise to staff and leaders for the ways in which they support children's confidence and development.

Staff enthusiastically join in with children's play. This promotes children's positive attitudes towards their learning. Children are invited by staff to be 'safety spies'. They wear superhero capes and masks and help staff to check the setting for any dangers or hazards. This supports children to learn about how to keep themselves safe.

Staff understand the importance of speaking to children and encouraging conversation. They narrate children's play to help them hear new language. Staff in the baby room are skilled at using simple words, which babies hear and try to repeat. As a result, children become confident in their communication skills.

The setting has had some previous issues with recruiting staff members. However, this has now been resolved and the leadership team is committed to further extending the skills and knowledge of the now established staff team.

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

• Leaders and staff have put into place learning goals for the different ages of children who attend. These goals support staff to plan for children's learning and build on what they already know and can do. Leaders monitor the ways in which staff assess children's learning and progress. This helps them to identify any gaps in children's learning across the nursery and provide further support for staff to close those gaps.
• Leaders recognise that some children do not have access to outdoor play areas at home. In response, leaders and staff have set up a play space, in addition to the garden, inside the nursery. This ensures that children have further opportunities to develop their physical skills, such as using a slide or riding on wheeled toys.
• Staff sensitively support children to learn how to wait for their turn with toys. Children show that they understand staff's expectations for their behaviour. For instance, they stop what they are doing to show staff that they are listening to instructions. Children happily help to tidy up after they have finished playing.
• Staff aim to support children to develop their independence skills. For example, children access a self-service station to collect their own cereal and fruit snacks. This helps children to develop the confidence to do more for themselves.
• Overall, staff deploy themselves well to engage children in their learning. However, on occasion, some daily routines and tasks that are carried out by staff are not as well organised as other times of the day. This has an impact on the time and attention that staff can give to fully support children's learning. Nonetheless, leaders recognise this and outline their intentions to continue to work with staff to review these times of day.
• Staff use an app and daily diary to communicate with parents about children's learning and care. Parents appreciate the time that staff take to speak with them about their child. They say that they feel well informed about children's development and experiences. The nursery provides parents with ideas for home learning, as well as access to a book lending library. These support parents to further help their child to work towards their learning goals at home.
• Leaders observe and monitor staff's practice and give regular feedback to staff. Newly recruited staff are partnered with more-experienced staff members who act as mentors. This helps to ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities.
• Leaders plan to put in place training and professional development opportunities to support the newly established staff team. Their aim is to provide targeted training opportunities to further support staff in the specific care and learning needs of the children that they look after. However, this is not yet embedded enough to have an impact on staff's skills and knowledge.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and improve daily routines and transition times to ensure the best use of staff's time in consistently meeting the needs of children
• put into place a targeted programme of professional development to further raise the skills and knowledge of staff.