Mulberries and Willows Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are attentive to children's individual needs. They take time to settle children into the nursery, who are eager to start their day and arrive ready to start their learning. Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. They review children's stages of development and meet with parents and other agencies to discuss targets and what they can work on together. This helps to provide good continuity of care. Staff plan a good-quality curriculum, adapting activities to support children's individual targets. They make good use of language bags with children's interests and key photos to support their learning.

Staff are consistent in their approach to behaviour management. They teach children the importance of turn-taking and sharing. Staff support children to understand their emotions. They use resources well, such as books and different emotional characters, to help children express how they feel. This helps children to learn how to self-regulate and talk about their feelings. Children behave well. Staff make good use of the outside space to support children's physical development. Children enjoy learning to move in different ways, such as following instructions to identify and then jump between different-coloured hoops.

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

• The provider has worked hard to improve the safety of the children in the nursery. Safety improvements have been made to the outside play areas, and regular headcounts help staff to keep children safe. New procedures have been implemented to link staff inside and outside the nursery, so they are aware of how many children they have in any one area. This helps staff to be deployed to keep children safe.
• During larger group activities, the more vocal children take over, drawing attention away from the quieter ones. As a result, quieter children are often overlooked and less likely to extend their learning during these activities.
• Accidents and incidents are recorded by staff. They are reviewed by senior leaders to analyse risks and what actions they need to take. This helps to keep children safe.
• Staff work closely with other agencies involved with the care of the children. They attend regular meetings to share children's development and targets. This helps to provide good continuity of care.
• Children make good progress given their starting points. Staff meet with parents to assess children's starting points and stages of development. They use this information successfully to settle children into the setting.
• Babies are nurtured well. They receive cuddles of reassurance when they arrive. They snuggle into staff who talk to them about their day. They are soon ready to explore and start their day. This helps to build on children's self-esteem and confidence.
• Toddlers enjoy exploring their imagination and developing their creativity. They excitedly paint using different resources, such as hands and brushes. They also take great enjoyment in playing with shaving foam. They learn that clapping disperses the foam and makes it turn into 'snow'. They giggle and squeal with delight.
• Pre-school children learn key skills to aid the next stage of their learning. They explore home play activities, learning that mixing water with tea leaves and tea bags makes drinks. They extend their physical development learning to pour and transfer the water and tea between the teapot and cups. Children independently refill the teapot to continue their learning.
• Children are confident learners. They are skilled in asking staff for support, including when they want to reach different resources. This supports children's language development well.
• Staff support children and parents who speak English as an additional language well. They make good use of various resources to help with translation, so they can ask key questions to parents and other carers. They read dual-language books to children and use key words so they can understand the needs of the children. This further supports children's language development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to help to identify quieter children during activities so they can get the most out of their learning and development.