Milby Nursery and Kids Club

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are responsive and follow children's needs as required. This helps children to thrive in a calm, welcoming and inclusive environment. Children arrive happily, settle quickly and show that they feel safe. They develop positive attitudes to learning, behave well and form friendships with one another. Staff support children to cooperate and learn to take turns. For example, staff use a timer to support children to take turns as they play outside.

Throughout the nursery, children engage enthusiastically in a broad range of carefully planned activities that reflect their interests and developmental needs. They explore books, mark make with pine cones, explore musical instruments and use investigation skills in water play. Staff develop children's understanding of personal care through role play, such as washing and dressing dolls, and playing hairdressers. Staff provide opportunities for children to build physical control and coordination. They set up the environment so that children can climb, ride bikes, use tweezers to sort pom-poms and manipulate play dough to music.

Staff quickly get to know the children well. They build a curriculum that supports independence and shows clear progression of skills, such as washing their own hands and serving themselves snack. Communication and language form a core part of the curriculum. Staff interact at children's level, model language and use visuals to aid understanding. Leaders and staff identify children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) early and ensure they receive effective support. As a result, all children make good progress from their starting points.

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

• Leaders have designed a curriculum that promotes independence. For example, pre-school children practise handwashing routines and two-year-olds collect their own plates and cups at snack time. Staff model and talk through the steps of how to wash their hands correctly.
• Children benefit from a wide range of rich learning experiences. These experiences broaden their understanding of the world and support all areas of learning and development. Children practice yoga, explore their emotions, learn about fire safety, create in the mud kitchen, complete jigsaws, and explore autumn through texts, art and outdoor play. This helps all children to thrive.
• Staff interact warmly with children. They model and repeat language, extend vocabulary and use visual supports to aid comprehension. Occasionally, some staff's interactions with children do not support children to extend their thinking to the highest possible level. For example, when exploring in the sand children are told the sand is 'cold' but no further discussion takes place.
• Children behave well and their behaviour is managed by staff effectively.
• Children are taught to share, take turns and are positively re-engaged if they drift from activities. Staff are deployed well across the nursery and they use positive praise and clear instructions to support this.
• Children with SEND receive highly effective support. Staff identify concerns early, collaborate with external agencies and deliver targeted interventions. Parents of children with SEND emphasise their satisfaction with the tailored support and strong partnership working. They explain that they are well informed every step of the way. In addition, parents state that they feel that their children's needs are identified quickly and effective support is put in place.
• Leaders maintain strong oversight of the nursery by evaluating their provision and seeking parent and staff views. They monitor practice, provide supervision and support staff well-being. Staff report feeling valued and well supported by leaders and by one another. Staff have access to lots of professional development, which supports and develops their confidence and skills. Trustees of the nursery support the leaders effectively and have an active role in the development of the provision and practice.
• Children are well prepared for school. Those in the pre-school room have opportunities to sit in circle time to help build their attention skills and develop their fine motor skills for future writing. The nursery works in partnership with the local primary school to share information.
• Parents speak positively about the nursery. They say staff are approachable, communication is open and their children make visible progress. However, there is scope to strengthen partnership with parents further to help promote healthy eating. For example, children bring in a range of snacks and treats to eat at lunchtime and although leaders are developing a new lunch box policy, this has not been shared with parents. This does not fully support all children to learn about the importance of eating healthily.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide staff with further support and guidance to extend children's thinking during interactions to deepen children's learning further
• strengthen partnerships with parents further to promote healthy lunch choices, so that children develop a stronger understanding of the importance of eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.