Nursery Rhymes

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with many opportunities to safely learn outside. Children show great interest in the well-thought-out activities provided for them. For example, children have fun taking part in a treasure hunt. Toddlers use a variety of tools to dig for treasure in the large sand pit. Pre-school children demonstrate their growing vocabulary as they excitedly share their thoughts and ideas with each other and staff. For example, they imaginatively create stories around their play as they pretend to repair water pipes with toy diggers and excavators.

Babies are given many opportunities to develop their physical skills. They pull themselves up and hold hands with staff as they learn to start walking. Children show good manners and respect for one another at mealtimes and during activities. For example, children thank their friends for passing the jug of water. Children develop a positive attitude to learning as they freely explore the environment and attractively presented activities that interest them. For example, toddlers spend considerable time re-telling 'The Gruffalo' story with animals from the story. They use their small muscles to pick up oats and put them into cake cases as they pretend to make 'Gruffalo' cakes.

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

• Staff demonstrate that they understand how children learn through a well-organised curriculum. They use children's interests to plan for their next steps of learning. However, on occasions, children lose interest, and some staff in the pre-school room do not provide sufficient challenge for the most-able children.
• Children's communication and language skills are developing well. Staff engage pre-school children in back-and-forth conversations throughout the day. They speak clearly to toddlers, and sensitively repeat any words that are new or children mispronounce. For example, toddlers use mathematical language to describe whether containers are full or empty in the water tray. Babies enjoy listening to stories and joining in with familiar songs.
• The key-person system is effective. Children form secure attachments with the staff who care for them, which promotes their well-being and independence. For example, babies are quickly soothed by staff who understand their individual needs. Staff praise children regularly as they know the children's characteristics well, which helps children to become confident learners. For example, toddlers persevere to balance blocks on top of each other to build a tower, as their achievements are celebrated by the staff caring for them.
• Children develop positive relationships with each other and children of all ages play well together when outside. Children listen and follow instructions, such as when it is time to tidy away, children help to put toys back on the shelves. However, staff are not always consistent in helping children to understand why rules and boundaries are in place. This means that children are not consistently helped to learn to regulate their own behaviour and to understand how this has an impact on others.
• Children learn skills in preparation for their move on to school, such as to be independent. For example, in the baby room, staff teach babies to feed themselves. In the toddler room, staff encourage children to use knives and forks to eat their lunch. In the pre-school room, children put out knives and forks for their friends on the tables for lunch, and serve their own food.
• Parents are full of praise for the nursery. They comment that staff are always happy, supportive and friendly. Staff regularly share information about children's development and provide information to help parents support and extend children's learning at home. Parents particularly value the events the provider arranges so that they and other family members can visit the nursery, such as an end of year graduation ceremony.
• Children have good opportunities to learn about the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. They engage in daily physical activities outside as they learn to climb and balance. Children benefit from healthy and nutritious meals and remember to wear their sun hats when the weather is warm.
• The provider ensures that staff are provided with a good range of support and training. For example, staff have completed training to enable them to use signs and symbols to support children's communication and language development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff interactions for pre-school children during activities to ensure the most-able children are fully engaged and their learning is sufficiently challenged
• assist staff to understand how to support children's developing understanding of why rules and boundaries are in place.