N Family Club Dollis Hill

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this safe and welcoming setting. There is a well-established key-person system, which enables staff to provide individualised care and support for children. For instance, staff follow babies' routines from home and provide familiar forms of comfort. This helps children to settle and form affectionate attachments. Staff give children lots of praise and encouragement, to foster their confidence and self-esteem. They are consistent about the expectations for children's behaviour, such as using good manners. As a result, children know what is expected of them. They feel emotionally secure and demonstrate positive attitudes towards their learning.

Leaders and staff share a clear vision for the curriculum and are ambitious for all children. They embrace children's creativity and introduce them to a broad range of materials to support their self-expression. For example, staff identify older children's curiosity about bees and provide interesting ways for them to explore their ideas and learn new things. Children examine fresh flowers to discover what nectar and pollen look like. They are inspired to create models, such as 'bee hives', learning about shapes and refining their use of tools as they shape and mould pieces of clay. These rich learning experiences ignite children's love of learning and encourage them to build on what they know and can do.

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

• Leaders are passionate about giving all children a positive start to their education. The curriculum is thoughtfully planned to address any gaps in children's experiences and ensure that they are well prepared for school. For instance, there is a strong focus on developing children's personal care skills. This includes teaching children about hygiene and helping them to manage tasks, such as handwashing, dressing and using the toilet.
• Staff monitor children's progress and quickly identify where they require additional help with learning. They provide targeted interventions and work closely with parents and other professionals where needed. This consistent support helps all children to make good progress.
• Children benefit from rich opportunities to practise speaking and listening. Staff expose them to a wide range of sounds and words through stories, songs and activities. They ask purposeful questions and give children time to think and respond. Older children demonstrate strong communication skills. They engage in meaningful conversations with adults and their peers.
• Staff provide resources, such as sand and clay, which help children to develop dexterity in their fingers and hands. Outdoors, babies and toddlers become confident movers as they navigate steps and ramps. However, staff do not consistently provide further challenge in the curriculum for physical development, to extend older children's large-muscle movements.
• Staff plan the activities around children's interests and fascinations. This draws children to activities and promotes their positive attitudes to learning. For instance, toddlers learn how to care for 'babies' in a pretend clinic. They are keen to practise dressing and feeding the dolls, which supports their own independence skills.
• In general, staff support children's behaviour well. They help them to solve disagreements and remind them about what they should do. Staff use stories to introduce children to the language of emotions. However, when children struggle to regulate their strong feelings, staff do not consistently help them to recall this vocabulary and express themselves using words.
• Staff value children's individuality. They ensure that their home languages and traditions are incorporated into the curriculum, such as by sharing songs and stories from home. Throughout the year, they celebrate special events together, such as Eid, Diwali and Christmas. This helps children to develop a positive appreciation of their similarities and differences.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are strong. Staff ensure that there is a consistent two-way flow of information, to support children's care, learning and welfare. They offer parents resources and suggestions to help them to continue children's learning at home, such as a book lending library. Parents are highly complimentary about the care, education and experiences their children receive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine the curriculum for physical development further, to help older children to consistently build on their large-muscle movements
• support staff to help children to express their feelings and emotions more effectively.