Nurserytime

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at this warm, welcoming setting. Friendly, attentive and nurturing staff greet them with smiles. Children show they feel safe and secure as they confidently say goodbye to their parents with ease. Staff are vigilant to children's emotional needs. They offer reassurance through cuddles and smiles, and children respond with affection. The highly effective key-person system is firmly embedded within the setting. Staff have high expectations for children. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and their families, are very well supported.

Children have excellent opportunities to develop their small-muscle skills. For example, children strengthen their hand muscles as they investigate a range of activities. Younger children roll dough and press cutters to make different shapes. Older children concentrate as they use pipettes to add water to the dough and investigate the change in textures.

Children are forming special friendships with each other as they initiate their own play. For example, at lunchtime children join together. They see their siblings and other children. This allows children time to talk about the day's events, share experiences and develop a raft of social skills.

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

• Children rest and sleep according to their individual needs. Staff liaise with parents about changes to sleeping patterns and dietary needs. They offer guidance to parents as to how best to support children. This reflects good partnerships while also helping to meet the ever changing needs of children.
• Children learn to express themselves confidently. Staff encourage the use of gestures, expressions and verbal responses to support children's communication skills. Younger children use pictorial aids to express their choice in activities. They select spoons associated with favourite songs to communicate which ones they want to sing. Older children confidently use expressive language to describe their play. Staff introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary during activities. Children use these words, such as 'juicy, grapefruit, squeeze, sour, flavour' and 'fragrant' to describe the various fruits they explore.
• Children access a well-balanced curriculum that supports all areas of their learning and builds on what they already know and can do. Staff closely monitor children's progress from the start. They are skilled at recognising when children require additional support and work well with the management team to arrange early intervention. This helps children to progress from their starting points. However, at times, staff do not always explore ways to extend children's mathematical skills.
• Behaviour throughout the nursery is good. Staff provide positive role models and offer praise and encouragement. They are quick to address negative behaviour, and support children to learn what behaviour is acceptable and what is not. Staff encourage children to be kind to their friends and take turns during play activities.
• The management team have a clear vision of the nursery's strengths and areas for development. They give staff well-being high priority. They support staff well and carry out supervision sessions and appraisal meetings. Staff report that the nursery is like a 'family', they feel valued and staff morale is high.
• Parents are uniformly delighted with the setting. They are extremely happy and confident with the care and education offered to their children. They comment on how children thrive in the nursery, supported by loving and attentive staff. They are appreciative of the excellent communication from the nursery and use the online application platform.
• Children have good communication skills, and staff use lots of language opportunities to extend and develop children's vocabulary. From the earliest age, children are encouraged to babble and explore with their voices. Older children enjoy stories where they are able to retell the story with confidence. Staff give children sufficient time to process what they have learned. However, on some occasions, group activities are not sharply focused on each child's individual needs, and quieter children sit outside of the activity with less adult interaction.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• maximise opportunities for children to further develop and practise their early mathematical skills
• engage quieter children more in discussions and activities, so that they benefit from the same good quality interactions as the more confident children.