Meadows Early Years Practitioners

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff provide a welcoming and inclusive environment, where all children are valued and respected. Staff find out about children's experiences at home and ensure that these are included in the curriculum. For example, activities reflect the music, food and cultural events that children share with their families. This adds to children's sense of belonging and boosts their self-esteem. The books, resources and activities represent a variety of backgrounds and cultures outside of children's own experiences. Therefore, they also develop their interest and understanding of different people and communities. This helps to prepare them for life in modern Britain.

Children form close and affectionate bonds with staff. Therefore, they feel safe and secure at the setting. They enter with confidence, greet their friends and quickly settle down to play. Children respond positively to staff's high expectations for their behaviour and learning. They are friendly, polite and enjoy being helpful. Children quickly become familiar with the routines and follow these independently, which promotes a calm and harmonious learning environment. Children love spending time in the large garden, where the games and activities promote their physical development extremely well. They learn how to keep themselves healthy, such as through exercise and healthy eating.

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

• The manager, who also owns the setting, is passionate about providing all children with a positive start to their education. She works effectively with staff to ensure that practice continuously evolves in response to the children's needs. For example, staff recognise that some children need extra help to develop their language skills. Therefore, they have introduced a range of strategies, such as 'talking time' sessions to help children practise speaking and listening.
• Staff know the children extremely well. They use information from parents and their ongoing assessments to support children's next steps in learning. Staff are quick to recognise where children may need additional help to make the best progress. They work effectively with parents and outside agencies to identify children's needs and provide effective support. Therefore, all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who receive funding, make good progress.
• Children thoroughly enjoy their play and show positive attitudes to learning. For example, children practise social skills and develop their imaginations during role play. They display a sense of humour as they pretend to add hot sauce to the toy food and giggle with delight as staff play along with them. Children spontaneously use their mathematical skills to decide how long the food will take to cook and how many toppings to add to their 'burgers'.
• Staff demonstrate a good range of teaching skills as they interact with the children. For instance, they give clear explanations, demonstrate how to use resources and praise children for their efforts. Staff share songs and stories with children each day. They introduce new words and repeat these back clearly for children to practise saying. This helps children to become confident and effective communicators.
• Children experience lots of exciting opportunities to learn about their community and the people who help us. For example, they enjoyed rides in a taxi cab to celebrate the king's coronation. Children also enjoy outings within their local area, such as visits to an allotment to harvest fruit and vegetables. This broadens their understanding of the world.
• Staff encourage children to make independent choices about their play and support them to feel confident about what they can do. They teach children some important self-care skills, such as how to use the toilet and wash their hands independently. However, they could build further on this area of the curriculum so that children learn a broader range of personal skills.
• The manager and staff work extremely hard to engage with parents and involve them in their children's learning. For example, they provide storybooks and learning packs for children and parents to share at home. Parents comment on the inclusive environment and say that staff go out of their way to make them feel welcome in the setting. They say that their children develop self-confidence and good social skills because of their experiences at the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to provide a wider range of opportunities for children to develop their personal care skills.