Millie's House

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff show passion for ensuring children feel emotionally secure in their care. They work closely with children's families and take a personalised approach when settling children and planning for their individual needs. This ensures that children quickly form strong bonds with staff and feel happy and safe at nursery. Staff plan a well-thought-out curriculum around children's interests and next steps. They make effective use of assessments to ensure all children make the expected progress.

Children behave well and show respect for one another. Staff instil a 'You can do it' attitude in children as they encourage them to give things a try first before offering them assistance. Staff are incredibly positive and use stickers and 'high fives' to offer children praise and encouragement as they learn through their play. Children fully understand the importance of good manners. For example, they use language such as 'excuse me' when someone is in their way and 'can I have some more please?' when enjoying their lunch.

Children respond well to the many opportunities on offer to develop their independence skills. They chop their own fruit for snack time, pour their own drinks and serve themselves food during mealtimes. They organise their own belongings on their pegs and dress themselves appropriately for outdoor play. The low-level furniture in all rooms allows children, including babies, to easily and independently select what they would like to play with.

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

• Careful consideration is given to ensuring children develop physically. Babies have plenty of floor space to practise their crawling and walking. Toddlers enjoy climbing on, up and over apparatus. Older children practise their skills in riding bikes and navigating a track, balancing on stepping stones and throwing and catching large balls. All children enjoy the daily opportunities for exploring the local area on trips out with their friends.
• The nursery promotes a love for reading and staff carefully use sensory activities to bring stories to life. For example, children enjoy splashing in water, squelching their feet in mud and feeling the texture of grass under their feet as they are read the story of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. All rooms are equipped with cosy reading areas and children enjoy independently selecting their own books. Staff use flash cards and model initial letter sounds to support children as they begin to recognise the printed words within books.
• Children fully understand staff's expectations for their behaviour at nursery. For example, children tidy up when asked, sit for circle times, line up when their name is called for outdoor play and listen carefully to their friends when sharing the adventures of 'Super Ted'. Children show high levels of respect for each other, play together well and offer each other help when needed.
• There is a range of exciting activities on offer for all ages of children to engage with. Careful consideration is given to planning to ensure all children have access to opportunities to develop their skills within all areas of the early years foundation stage curriculum. On the whole, most staff are clear on the intended learning behind the planned activities and support children well. However, there are times when some staff need further coaching in this area. In addition, some staff need help with understanding when to offer children extra support to ensure they can maximise their potential learning opportunities.
• Parents speak enthusiastically about how much their children enjoy nursery and the high level of nurturing that staff offer. They are fully informed about their children's progress and are given ideas to help at home. They feel that staff are knowledgeable, know their children well and ensure they are ready for their next stages in learning, including starting school.
• Leaders work closely with staff to ensure they are supported emotionally and have plenty of opportunities to develop professionally. Staff attend supervision meetings, staff meetings and a range of training opportunities, both online and in person. Effective use of partnership working with the local authority and external agencies ensures that all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make the expected progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support some staff further to fully understand what they are intending children to learn
• support some staff further with understanding when to intervene with extra support, to ensure children maximise their learning.