Mother Goose

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at this warm and nurturing setting. Parents appreciate daily opportunities to speak to their child's key person and exchange information about their child's needs. This helps staff to understand the needs of the child and adapt their approach if necessary. Staff pay close attention to the emotional requirements of the children. When children need comfort and reassurance, they provide it to them.

Children engage with outdoor learning opportunities and move between indoor and outdoor environments. Outdoors, staff plan and provide a rich and varied range of activities and experiences that capture children's interests and support them to make good progress in their learning. They learn to negotiate space as they ride cars around the garden. Children explore in the sand, where they can dig, fill and pour. This helps them develop their hand-eye coordination and strengthen their hand muscles in readiness for early writing. Additionally, children are enthusiastic about exploring nature. Staff help children to look for minibeasts under the logs, and children shriek with delight as they find centipedes and caterpillars. Staff extend children's learning by placing minibeasts in magnified pots so children can investigate insects closely. They help children identify minibeasts as children share their discoveries with them.

Children develop some of the independence skills they need for starting school as they learn to manage tasks for themselves. Children are learning to take care of their own hygiene needs and why it is important to develop good hygiene practices. For instance, staff encourage children to wipe their own noses and remind them about the need to wash their hands before eating.

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

• Generally, staff provide children with an ambitious curriculum. Children enjoy taking part in adult-led activities. For example, they join in recalling the story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' as they match and count fruits from the story. However, some staff do not consistently build on what older children already know and can do. This means that some activities are not pitched at the right level for older children. This means that, on occasion, some children lose interest in their learning.
• Staff promote children's communication and language development well. They talk to children during play and engage them in back-and-forth conversations. Staff ask children questions and allow them time to respond. Children are confident communicators.
• Staff know their key children well. They can confidently talk about each child and explain what they are currently working on. Staff demonstrate the ability to recognise delays in children's learning and development and how to support them in these areas to make good progress.
• Children behave well. They receive gentle reminders about why their actions may not be safe and have suggestions about what can help them. Children listen, follow instructions and are encouraged to take turns when appropriate. They show that they feel safe and secure and have respect for their environment. For instance, all children join in and help put toys away during tidy-up time. Children form good friendships and enjoy the company of others.
• Leaders place an emphasis on creating a strong connection with the local community. The team is passionate about creating a family ethos where families are supported in their child's education journey. Staff focus on open, two-way communication to share children's progress with parents so that they can continue this learning at home.
• There is a strong teamwork ethic in the setting, and staff work well together. Staff feed back that leaders support them well in their roles. They mention that leaders regularly work alongside them throughout the nursery and that they feel listened to and valued.
• Leaders meet regularly with staff and provide supervision sessions to make sure that all staff are well supported. However, leaders do not maximise these sessions fully with staff to identify gaps in their knowledge or skills and target training to support their teaching even further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to enhance their planning and delivery of the curriculum during group activities so that it meets the differing needs of the children
• build on the arrangements for staff supervision and training to further develop their skills and raise the quality of teaching.