Lordswood under 5's playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this friendly and welcoming nursery. The woodland setting is extremely inviting. On arrival, children enjoy spotting the changes to the trees throughout the year as well as squirrels collecting acorns. These features provide a great start to the day and help to ignite children's interests and curiosity. Children benefit from good-quality teaching, which supports their learning and the good progress they make. Staff work hard to make sure all children achieve to the best of their abilities. Children behave very well. They make friends easily and form close attachments to the staff. Staff find out about children's interests and their likes and dislikes. This means that they enjoy familiar activities on entry and quickly settle into the new environment.

Children demonstrate that they feel safe at nursery. They approach staff readily for reassurance and comfort, knowing their needs will be met and staff will respond accordingly. Children develop good self-care skills. They learn to drink from a cup, pour their own milk and use a knife to cut fruit and butter their toast. Children move between the rooms and outdoor area confidently. Staff prepare them well for changes and new routines. They praise children well and celebrate achievements within the nursery as well as those shared from home.

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

• The management team and staff have made a special effort and show a genuine commitment to improving their standards since the last inspection. There has been a focused programme to drive improvement. This includes improving the organisation of the provision that best meets the needs of all children. This has had a genuine impact on the quality of care and education, which has significantly improved.
• Staff have a clear plan for the broad skills they want children to develop over time. The wide and interesting range of activities and resources gives children many opportunities to develop these. Staff also ensure that children are listened to and there are opportunities for them to follow their interests. However, planning for children's next steps is not always precisely focused on what children need to learn next. For example, staff are not always clear about the intent of the learning for individual activities.
• Staff have high regard for children's mathematical development. They frequently count with children and compare objects of different size. For instance, as children wash sea animals, staff provide young children with questions about the shapes they recognise, such as a star fish. Staff extend children's learning further by helping them to make comparisons between different lengths.
• Staff support toddlers and pre-schoolers to develop their language by extending what children are saying as they play with them or lead activities. For example, staff model 'look at all this wet sand!' and then children use this language later during independent play. This helps children to extend their spoken vocabulary and improve their sentence structure.
• Staff provide a wealth of opportunities for children to learn about the natural world. They re-use various household items and place them carefully within areas. Children become curious and explore the resources within their play activities. Furthermore, children enjoy growing and planting. They eagerly sow seeds and await their harvest. Children observe growth and talk about what recipes they will make with their healthy produce. This helps to broaden children's knowledge of the world around them.
• Staff provide children with good opportunities to celebrate what makes them unique and help them develop a strong sense of self. Children learn about themselves and their families. However, staff do not consistently provide enough learning opportunities for children that promote environments that may be unfamiliar to them, to help to prepare them for life in the wider community.
• Parents praise the support they receive as children get ready to move on to the next stages in their lives and school. For instance, staff share detailed reports with parents and meet teachers. This helps children feel very secure and ready for the next stage of their learning.
• Staff speak of the support they receive from management and clearly enjoy their work. They are committed professionals who are passionate about supporting children to have the best possible start.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine planning so that staff identify more precisely what they want children to learn from planned learning experiences, and how best to sequence learning
• build on opportunities for children to learn about differences in people and the community beyond their own immediate experiences so that they understand and appreciate equality and diversity.