Mindful Me Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children learn a breadth of knowledge and skills while exploring the local community. Staff praise children as they independently get their shoes, coats and winter clothing on ready to go for a walk. They encourage children to wipe their noses and put the tissue in the right bin, ready to leave. Children sing a familiar song with staff about safety and support one another to carefully cross the road while looking for cars. Children demonstrate the good manners that staff have shown them, raising their hands and thanking cars for waiting. They wish passers-by Merry Christmas and make sure there is room on the path for everyone. Children confidently share their ideas and hold vibrant conversations with one another. They discuss the shadow they make by blocking out the sun and ask staff questions about how their heart works as they walk faster.

Children have strong bonds with all staff and are highly motivated by their praise. They happily seek a reassuring cuddle and are proud to show staff pictures and other creations they make. Children behave well from a young age and know what is expected of them. They listen carefully to staff reading a story about a bear and wait their turn to pick a prop out of a bag to sing. Children show their strong friendships as they hold hands and sing 'Row, row, row your boat', laughing with each other as they scream at the thought of a crocodile.

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

• Staff know the children extremely well and talk about their personalities and what interests them. They assess what children know and can do, supporting them with what they need to learn next and addressing any gaps in their learning. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Staff plan a wide range of activities for all children. Younger children enjoy using their whole body and paint to make marks in a tray. Staff support them to develop their physical skills and learn new words, such as 'squeeze' and 'roll'. Occasionally, some staff focus too heavily on the outcome of the activity and not on the skills and knowledge the children, as individuals, need to learn next. Therefore, some children do not make the most progress they are capable of.
• Staff interact well with children and support them to develop their communication and language. They sit with children as they independently read a book about a lion. Staff encourage them to talk about what they can see, such as pointing out that they have 'two eyes, like you'. Children use their own words to describe the lion's big eyes and big ears to hear them and listen as staff explain what whiskers are. The children laugh as they draw their own lions in different colours, and staff practise making lion noises with them.
• Staff encourage children to share and be kind to one another. When children find this difficult, staff provide the appropriate support to help them understand how this might make others feel. Staff focus heavily on children's happiness and well-being. They use a persona doll to support children to understand and talk about their feelings about, for example, parents working away from home.
• Staff encourage children to try things for themselves throughout the day. When practising using scissors to make a kite, staff suggest they work as a team to be able to cut the sticky tape and stick it down. They praise the youngest children for using a spoon to feed themselves their lunch.
• Leaders are passionate about providing good-quality care and education and have the children's happiness at the heart of their decision making. They have considered the experiences children get elsewhere when planning what experiences they offer at the nursery. Leaders have established ways of identifying what staff need support with. However, the learning from professional development opportunities provided is not yet embedded in staff practice. Therefore, this is not yet effective at raising the quality of staff's practice to a consistently high level.
• Staff and leaders place great importance on maintaining good relationships with all families. Parents and carers say the support and guidance from staff are 'exceptional' and they feel the 'children come first'. They comment on how nice it is to always be welcomed into the nursery to see what children are learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop a sharper focus on the skills and knowledge staff intend children to learn during activities, to support all children to make the most progress
• embed further the professional development staff are provided, to improve the consistency of skills and ability.