Mini Stars Childcare LTD

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Management and staff provide a nurturing environment. Children and their parents are warmly greeted by a member of staff on their arrival. This supports a smooth transition into their nursery day. Staff provide a good range of adult-led and child-initiated play. This includes daily opportunities for children to practise their skills and previously learned knowledge. Children eagerly explore the environment, behave well and demonstrate a positive attitude to their learning. For example, younger children concentrate as they manipulate and mould dough. They make models, such as pretend monsters and snakes, demonstrating their understanding of the difference between short and long as they describe their models.

Staff encourage babies and younger children to develop their hand-eye coordination skills as they learn to scoop and pour sand from one container to another. They encourage children to explore the texture of shaving foam, demonstrating how to make marks and draw different shapes. Children copy drawing wriggly lines and circle shapes. Staff support children to link numerals and amounts. For example, children place the correct number of pegs into wooden blocks to match the written numeral. Staff then encourage children to count the number of pegs. Additionally, staff support children to explore different shapes. They are able to identify that a square has four sides and a circle is round.

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

• Management and staff are committed to providing good quality childcare. Their curriculum is planned to give all children the foundations for their future learning. Management and staff regularly reflect and evaluate their practice, continually looking at ways to improve. This has led to changes to snack routines and a designated area for children aged between two and three years. There is a strong team ethos, staff's well-being is prioritised, and training opportunities are highly valued.
• Staff implement an effective key-person system and know the children well. They recognise the importance of children feeling emotionally secure and value their relationships with parents. Staff complete ongoing observations of the children to monitor their progress and well-being. This supports staff to understand each child's personality, interests and learning needs. Staff supervise the children well, support children's independence and join in their play. However, on occasion, staff do not use spontaneous opportunities to further extend children's thinking, including challenging their physical skills when they play in the outdoor environment.
• Staff swiftly identify children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They work effectively in partnership with other professionals and parents, involving them in discussions about that child. Staff plan specific activities to support the targets set for each individual child. This support ensures children are included, have fun and make progress alongside their peers.
• Management and staff place a high priority on supporting children's communication and language skills, including those who speak English as an additional language. Staff working with the babies and younger children respond to their gestures and sounds and successfully introduce words and phrases as they play. For example, as children slide down the foam cube, short sentences such as 'ready, steady, go' are introduced. Younger children respond eagerly, saying 'go'. Older children confidently use their language to talk about what they are doing. They remember that the word of the week is 'translucent,' and some older children are able give an explanation of the meaning of the word.
• From a young age, children display their enjoyment of books, rhymes and songs. Older children readily choose storybooks to share with staff. Children intently listen to staff as they read their chosen story. They show an interest in the illustrations, engage in conversations about the story and extend their range of vocabulary. Additionally, children enthusiastically learn a range of rhymes and songs.
• Management effectively uses additional funding to support children in receipt of funded education, including children in receipt of early years pupil premium. For example, additional resources have been purchased to support children's communication and language, and a sharing library has been developed to enable children to take home books to share with their parents.
• Partnerships with parents are a strength of the nursery. Staff spend time talking to parents and getting to know children's care needs and stage of development before they attend, for example during home visits and settling-in sessions. This helps to ease the transition from home to the nursery. There is a good, two-way flow of communication. Parents receive daily feedback and newsletters that contain an abundance of helpful information. Additionally, parents receive updates about their children's progress via an app and during consultation evenings. Parents are also invited to join Christmas and graduation celebrations.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use every opportunity to extend children's learning during spontaneous activities, including challenging their physical skills when in the outdoor environment.