Marmalade Bear

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff provide a safe and welcoming space where children thrive. They prioritise children's well-being, demonstrating a deep respect for their emotional needs. This begins before children start attending, when staff visit children and parents at home and provide 'stay-and-play' sessions at the setting. This enables children to build trusting and affectionate bonds with staff right from the start. Staff develop a secure understanding of each child and provide highly individualised care to help them settle and engage in activities. Children flourish and find joy in this exceptionally supportive environment.

Staff have high expectations for children's learning and behaviour. They equip children with the language and skills they need to regulate their emotions and become kind and thoughtful friends. Children enjoy being helpful and show care and respect for others. They learn how to manage setbacks and disagreements. Therefore, staff rarely need to intervene.

The superbly ambitious and inspiring curriculum nurtures children's personalities, knowledge and skills in readiness for school and later life. For example, children acquire a secure understanding of sustainability as they learn about the world. They collect rainwater to water their plants and grow seasonal fruit and vegetables in a 'secret garden'. This 'hands-on' approach to education ignites children's curiosity and instils an intense love of learning. Children consistently demonstrate high levels of focus and enthusiasm as they play.

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

• Leaders have excellent oversight of the provision. They know the children, families and staff exceptionally well, which enables them to build continually on the outstanding practice. For example, leaders have identified that some children joining the provision struggle to coordinate their large-muscle movements. Therefore, they ensure that children consistently practise and refine their physical skills in motivating and interesting ways, such as gardening, ballet and sports sessions. This highly proactive approach helps to close rapidly any gaps in children's learning.
• Staff instil children with a love of literacy and help them to build excellent foundations for reading and writing. They recognise that books, poems and songs offer rich learning opportunities that enhance children's language and communication skills. Children are inspired by a story about sea creatures and create their own colourful illustrations of sharks and jellyfish. They delight in taking part in 'helicopter story time', where they create their own characters and storylines. Staff record the children's ideas and read them back as children perform their stories.
• Teaching is inspirational throughout the provision. Staff have a wonderful ability to engage with children and are highly in tune with their current interests. This is reflected in the exciting activities that they plan and the children's obvious enthusiasm for learning. Children show high levels of motivation and concentration as they tackle challenges and complete self-initiated tasks, such as squeezing the juice from an orange, catching a magnetic fish or creating a spaceship from a cardboard box.
• Children learn about their own bodies and how to stay physically and mentally well, such as through daily outdoor play, yoga and breathing exercises. Staff have set up a 'self-clean station' to further promote children's independence in their personal care. Children show a keen awareness of good hygiene as they use tissues to wipe their noses. They look in the mirror provided to check that they have done a good job and then dispose of their tissues in the bin.
• Leaders foster a culture of openness and respect among all of the setting's employees so that values and high expectations are shared. They consistently support staff through role modelling and ongoing coaching, and encourage them to improve their qualifications and skills. As a result, staff morale is exceptionally high, with team members showing passion and dedication to their roles. This commitment ensures that children receive consistently high standards of teaching from motivated educators.
• Leaders and staff work tirelessly to engage with parents and include them in their children's learning. Parents describe how staff value each family's uniqueness and organise events such as 'rainbow day' to celebrate their similarities and differences together. Parents recognise that staff genuinely care about their children and place them at the 'centre of everything they do'. They say that staff are 'knowledgeable and helpful with every aspect of their children's development'.