Micky Star Community Children's Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy to attend nursery. They are warmly welcomed on arrival by the friendly staff. Babies enjoy cuddles and receive reassurance. This helps children to settle quickly and feel safe and secure. Older children demonstrate their good self-help skills as they hang up their coats and find their names to self-register. Children quickly become engaged in the broad range of activities on offer.

Children are curious and show a positive attitude to their learning. Staff join in as children play. They use opportunities effectively to extend children's knowledge and understanding. For example, babies enjoy exploring with coloured oats. They fill containers and use their imaginations as they pretend to cook. Toddlers experiment making different-coloured dough and make links to a story about a monster's emotions. Staff support children to express how they are feeling, which increases their language skills and understanding of others. Older children make marks with chalk and use magnifying glasses to find initial letter sounds, which builds on their early literacy skills.

Staff have high expectations for all children. Children behave well and follow the nursery's rules. All children make good progress from their starting points in development, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those children who speak English as an additional language.

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

• The manager is extremely passionate about her role and has high ambitions for all staff to become outstanding practitioners. She regularly monitors staff's practice and builds their confidence as they take part in staff meetings and observe their peers. The manager uses supervision sessions to reflect on areas for improvement and identify staff's training needs. She places a high priority on staff's well-being. Staff confirm the manager is supportive and that they enjoy working at the nursery.
• Staff collect detailed information from parents when children first start. They learn about children's routines and interests. This helps them to plan an ambitious and high-quality curriculum, which is implemented well. Staff use observations and assessments to monitor children's progress and ensure that any gaps are addressed quickly. Staff identify children's next steps in learning. However, due to a change in recording these, they do not consistently share these with parents to support children to continue their learning at home.
• The manager and staff have developed strong partnerships with parents. They speak highly of the manager and staff, and say that they feel very supported. Parents say that their children are keen to attend and often do not want to go home. They report that communication is good, and they receive regular updates on their children's routines and learning. Parents comment that they have noticed positive changes in their children's behaviour, confidence, independence and language skills.
• The special educational needs coordinator is an asset to the nursery. She works with other professionals to provide extra support to benefit children and help to prepare them for the next stage of learning. The provider has secured extra funding to extend children's hours at nursery. This ensures that disadvantaged children have opportunities to access the full curriculum. Staff organise language groups at the nursery, with support from local services, which have a positive impact on children's communication and language skills.
• Staff embed supporting children to stay safe, fit and healthy into the culture of the nursery. The nursery employs a chef, who cooks nutritional meals and snacks. Staff sit with children at mealtimes and engage in conversations, which increases their social skills. Children clean their teeth after meals to help to develop good oral hygiene routines. Children have access to the garden and enjoy balancing on tyres, riding bicycles and using rockers to extend their physical skills. The nursery supports families with their 'loan a bike' scheme to promote fitness and mental well-being.
• Babies and young children know the nursery's routine well. For example, they sit on the bench ready to put their shoes on and understand they need to wash their hands before food. However, staff in the baby room do not always communicate effectively or work together to ensure that the room runs as smoothly as possible for the continuity in care and learning for all children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the arrangements for sharing children's next steps in learning to support parents to continue their children's learning at home
• strengthen staff's practice in the baby room to ensure that all staff communicate effectively and work together as a team.