Lonsdale Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, settled and content in this warm and welcoming nursery. Staff greet children as they arrive and they happily leave their parents, ready to start the nursery day. Older children identify their name and self-register. Children learn to be independent. For example, older children help to give out cutlery and plates at lunch time. They independently serve themselves freshly prepared nutritious meals.

Toddlers enjoy looking at books independently and with staff. They listen attentively as staff read 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears.' Staff encourage children to talk about feelings and emotions as they read the story. Children eagerly respond to staff questions and describe what they see on the pages. Children behave well. Staff are positive role models and provide plenty of praise and encouragement. This helps to develop children's confidence and self-esteem.

Children benefit from daily opportunities to play outdoors. Older children practise their physical skills as they carefully balance along a tyre wall and ride balance bikes. Furthermore, staff challenge children to throw coloured bean bags into the corresponding coloured hoop. Toddlers take part in an exercise session. They excitedly count the number of star jumps they complete. Children use small spades to search for carrots in their garden. Children relish the time they spend outside.

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

• Staff provide a range of activities and opportunities that support children to develop their small-muscle skills. For instance, children roll and manipulate dough, and use tongs to pick up small objects. They use a variety of resources to make marks, such as chalks, sand, paints, and pencils. This helps to develop the skills needed for future writing.
• Children learn to count, compare, match objects and recognise shapes. For example, as older children play a game with coloured bears, staff ask them to compare who has the most. Furthermore, older children successfully identify the 'large' and 'small' chairs in the 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears' story. Staff support toddlers to count as they add oats to a bowl. This helps to support children's early mathematical development.
• The manager and staff implement an ambitious, sequenced curriculum, overall. They provide a wide range of interesting activities and experiences. However, sometimes, staff do not identify times in children's play when they could extend their learning further. For instance, when younger children are playing outside, staff do not always build on what they know children can do, and extend their skills further. This means that children are not consistently provided with high levels of challenge.
• Staff provide a language-rich environment. They ensure that children develop a love of traditional stories. Children relish listening to 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears'. Staff introduce new vocabulary, such as 'ginormous' and 'tiny'. Children learn how to use sign language to support them to express themselves. Children's listening and speaking skills are developing well.
• Overall, parent partnership working is strong. Parents speak positively about the service provided. They appreciate the daily updates about their child's progress and photographs of the activities their children take part in. Staff share children's next steps, when accomplished. However, they do not provide parents with ideas and suggestions about how they can further help children's development at home.
• Children's behaviour is good. They are kind and courteous to their friends. Staff are good role models, who demonstrate positive behaviour. They provide gentle reminders when children forget the nursery rules, along with an explanation of the impact of their actions. This helps children to understand what is expected.
• The special educational needs coordinator ensures that children who need it get the right help, swiftly. Staff work closely with other professionals, such as the local authority, speech and language therapists and local nurseries. This ensures that children get the right support and make the best possible progress.
• Staff receive effective supervision opportunities with the manager. Regular team meetings and room meetings take place. All staff have first-aid qualifications. However, the manager does not fully support staff to access training to raise the quality of education to an even higher level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the quality of staff interactions with children to help them challenge and extend children's learning more effectively as they play
• develop further the strategies to communicate information to parents about how they can extend and support their child's learning at home
• provide staff with more professional development and training opportunities in order to raise the quality of education even further.