Little Treacle's Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff greet children and their families with smiles and welcome them into this family focused setting. Children enter eagerly, excited to explore the toys set up for them. As such, children demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. Children show that they are happy and content. Staff provide new babies with cuddles and comfort. As a consequence, babies settle very well. This supports children's emotional well-being successfully. Staff plan interesting and motivating experiences for children. For example, children thoroughly enjoy going on a bear hunt. Older children delight in finding the bear inside a cave and remembering different parts of the story. These activities help children to develop their communication and language effectively.

Staff promote children's good behaviour. Staff are good role models, frequently praising and encouraging children to help develop key skills. For example, children quickly help staff to tidy up and clean the tables. This supports children's understanding of working together and develops their confidence. Staff have high expectations for children. They prioritise children's mathematical and physical skills. Older children sustain high levels of concentration when cutting out favourite pictures from magazines, carefully sticking them onto paper. Younger children explore play dough, making models with different resources. These activities help to develop children's movement skills effectively. All children make strong progress from their starting points in development.

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

• Leaders and managers work hard to ensure they offer quality care and education. They are passionate and committed. Leaders and managers provide staff with a range of training to continue to enhance what they offer families. For example, they provide children with additional dance and sport sessions to ensure they have access to a wider range of experiences.
• Staff support children's behaviour well. They display children's achievements for all to celebrate, supporting children's self-esteem. Staff are gentle and calm in their interactions with children, helping them to manage their own emotions. This helps children to learn about different feelings successfully.
• Children benefit from nutritious meals developed by the in-house catering team. Younger children excitedly get ready for lunchtime. They learn to wash their hands before eating and find their own water bottles. Older children help staff to serve, learning about portion control. These activities develop children's understanding of keeping healthy and safe.
• Staff plan activities that develop children's wider understanding. Staff encourage children to write to settings around the world, learning about different countries and diversity. Children help to take donations to the nearby foodbank to help the local community. This encourages children's knowledge of the world around them effectively.
• Staff help children to learn about caring for things. For example, older children talk avidly about growing their own vegetables at the allotment. Staff remind other children how they care for ducklings. Younger children delight in taking the setting's mascot on adventures. These activities support children's understanding of how to look after things well.
• Children benefit from staff who help them to develop key mathematical skills. Staff working with older children use words such as 'equilateral' when describing shapes. They support younger children to count when climbing up the stairs. These activities help children to develop their knowledge of number and shape successfully.
• Staff learn sign language to help children to communicate. They set up activities to help children to remember favourite books, supporting their speech and language skills. However, at times, staff do not consistently recognise how to enhance activities to ensure that all children remain engaged and extend their learning.
• Children know the routines of the setting well. Staff encourage children to put things away. However, the support for children to do things for themselves is not always consistent. This means that, at times, staff do things for children that they could learn to do themselves, such as finding tissues to wipe their own noses and learning to fasten their coats.
• Communication with parents and carers is strong. They appreciate the information they receive. Parents speak highly of the trips to the library that their children experience, and the events planned for them to attend. They value all the staff and their support.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff's confidence to recognise when they can extend activities to further enhance children's engagement
• help staff to identify when children can do things for themselves, providing consistent support to help them to further develop their independence skills.