Northfields Heckmondwike

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the setting with enthusiasm and transition smoothly to the staff's care. Strong relationships between staff and parents are evident as they engage in meaningful conversations during children's arrival, ensuring a seamless transition between home and nursery. Children seek reassurance from staff when needed. Staff enhance children's emotional well-being through gentle and kind interactions, fostering an environment of trust and care. Children behave well. Staff implement appropriate boundaries, which supports children to interact in positive ways. For example, young children are reminded to wait their turn and to share toys with their friends. This helps children to become considerate of others and develop their social skills.

Staff implement a curriculum that is broad and balanced. They use information gathered from parents and observations of the children in order to provide activities that the children enjoy. As children grow in independence, staff encourage them to take on small responsibilities. They can freely choose from a large range of resources. They are expected to help during routines, such as tidying away the toys. Children find their shoes and sun hats for outdoor play, attempting to put them on independently. Children develop strong independence skills.

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

• Staff consider ways to teach children mathematical concepts. For example, they successfully incorporate mathematics into daily routines. This includes encouraging children to think about different sizes as they build structures with soft-play shapes. Children show their knowledge of these concepts as they talk about how tall they will make their tower. This enables children to begin to use mathematical language.
• Staff regularly share information with parents about their children's learning. They provide updates and photos through online learning journeys, enabling parents to extend learning at home. Parents say that their children enjoy attending and that staff know their children well.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities have their needs met well. Staff work closely with other professionals to help children make good progress in their learning and development. Staff plan activities to aid children's learning even further. For example, they provide a variety of resources to support children's interest in building towers and houses. As a result, children participate well.
• Staff establish strong partnerships with professionals from other settings that children attend. This ensures a coordinated approach to each child's care and learning needs, such as behaviour management. Staff work closely with teachers at the relevant schools that children will attend. They incite them to attend a picnic tea with the children and send transition reports and assessments. This ensures a smooth transition and helps prepare children for the next stage of their education.
• Staff provide a language-rich curriculum through extending children's vocabulary, singing frequently and reading stories regularly. Younger children enthusiastically join in and copy actions. However, in some situations, staff do not remember to give children time to respond to questions before asking the next. This means, at times, support of communication and language is not always as successful.
• Overall, staff plan well for all children. However, sometimes, staff do not fully consider children's stage of development when organising activities. This results in some children finding it hard to fully join in and get the most out of the experience. For example, some planned activities to encourage sensory exploration rely on children having skills beyond those expected for their age. In addition, during activities, staff do not consistently model the correct pronunciation of letter sounds.
• Managers have implemented some ways to monitor the quality of teaching and learning. The staff meet regularly with linked settings to share ideas and discuss good practice. They also meet with managers to identify training opportunities and to talk about their well-being. Staff report they are happy and content in their roles. Although targets are set for staff, they do not always relate directly to individual's practice. Consequently, staff are not consistently supported to identify specific steps to improve their teaching of the curriculum.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the strategies used by staff to allow children sufficient time to respond to questions
• refine curriculum planning so learning experiences more consistently take account of children's current stage of development
• focus staff targets more precisely on how they can improve the quality of their teaching.