Mini Explorers Nursery@Pulborough

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Babies build strong bonds with staff, who know their needs and personalities. This enables babies to feel safe and secure. Babies readily approach staff for reassurance and guidance, which staff give willingly, showing great warmth and compassion. Babies enjoy looking at the self-register board and explore with staff who is attending each day. Staff repeat the names of babies to enable them to hear and learn their friends' names. This helps babies to build further relationships and strengthens a sense of community and family. Babies sit with each other at snack and mealtimes, making eating a social occasion. They have healthy, home-cooked meals, supporting them to develop a good understanding of healthy lifestyles.

Babies smile with great delight and enjoy playing peekaboo, looking through the cardboard tubes or using chiffon material to cover their faces. They giggle out loud when staff gently tickle them, demonstrating their thorough enjoyment. This boosts babies' understanding of interacting with others and the sequence of games. The provider, manager and staff understand how to observe and assess children's development. They use this information and what they gain from parents to plan for what babies need to learn next and the sequence this should follow. This enables babies to move on to the next stage in their learning successfully.

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

• The leadership team has a strong focus on continuous development. The team provides babies with new areas to explore and develop new skills. Babies learn to climb on the soft play resources within the sensory room. They gain an understanding of their community, such as through trips to the library and park.
• Leaders are supportive of their staff, recognising the importance of selecting the right candidates for the expansion of the nursery team. They provide regular individual and staff meetings to enhance staff's practice. Staff access training and evaluate how they can incorporate this into the setting. Staff report that they relish working in a small setting where they can really get to know the babies and their families. They comment about the supportiveness of the management team, stating that managers are 'always there'.
• Key staff know the babies well. There are clear procedures to ensure that staff who are supporting other staff are also aware of what babies need to learn next. Staff understand how children develop and that learning has a sequence. This means that staff plan successfully for babies' next steps in learning.
• Staff provide a language-rich environment for the babies. They make animal sounds, such as those of a lion and elephant, and babies begin to copy and respond. Staff also help babies to make observations of the features of the toy dinosaurs, and they support babies to link specific features, such as the teeth, to their own.
• Babies have a short circle time, where they greet each other with a song. Staff use simple signing, and babies watch with interest as they absorb the words to the songs. Babies copy and use simple sign language, such as when saying thank you. This enhances babies' early communication and language development.
• Staff are receptive to the changing needs of babies and understand aspects of development that may affect their mood. Babies sleep and eat in accordance with their own needs and routines, and staff know how to sooth them to sleep. This provides an added sense of security.
• Babies learn to be independent and access a well-organised environment. However, sometimes, when babies indicate that they want to explore the creative resources, staff do not always respond effectively. This means that babies are not always able to follow their own choice of play and learning.
• Staff have a clear understanding of babies' families and home lives. They engage babies in talking about their family members, such as about their grandparents. Staff display photographs of those important people in the babies' lives, which supports early communication and a sense of belonging.
• Staff burst into song throughout the day, enhancing babies' experiences. However, staff play music throughout the day in the background. This is sometimes distracting for babies, or they do not listen to the music, and it therefore loses its purpose.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents express that they chose the nursery due to its small size and family feel. Parents state that they trust the staff team and can see clear advances in the development of their babies. For example, they comment that the progress made in the speaking and social skills of their babies is highly evident.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's responses to babies when they indicate or gesture their choice of an activity
• revise the use of background music to ensure that it does not disrupt babies' play and learning.