Nurserytime

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are very caring towards the children and ensure a nurturing environment. They offer support and comfort to help them settle, which meets children's emotional needs. Staff know the children in their care very well and are sensitive to their needs and routine. For example, they know when babies need their comforters or need a sleep. Staff also carefully consider the layout of the baby room to ensure that babies' physical development is promoted and that they can easily access all activities.

The key-person system is effective. Staff ensure they provide appropriate learning experiences for all children, which also takes account of each child's interests. Children are happy and are well behaved. They have a good attitude to learning. They engage well and are keen to take part in all available activities.

All children benefit from an ambitious curriculum designed to promote all areas of learning. As a result, all children are making good progress in their development. Staff are also well prepared to accept children with additional needs, who are due to start at the setting. Staff engage with, and develop, good working relationships with other professionals. This helps to ensure that all children receive the individual support and care they need.

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

• The promotion of children's language and communication is a strong focus within the setting. Staff engage children in lots of discussions, singing and story time sessions. Staff also ensure that children have easy access to books, that they can also take home, to help develop a love of stories.
• Staff's interaction with children is consistently good. They are skilled at extending learning into different areas, such as indoors and outdoors. For example, a game of hiding a bear outside leads to a bear hunt story indoors, plus a large construction activity. This also promotes children's imagination, thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Staff ensure that children have interesting opportunities for developing their fine motor skills and creativity. For example, children paint pebbles with thin paintbrushes. Staff also allow children to use their own ideas to extend experiences. For example, after painting, children engage in a self-led activity of colour mixing.
• However, staff do not always support and develop children's natural curiosity to enhance their knowledge and understanding further, for instance when children show an interest in things they see and find in the outdoor play area.
• Staff help children to learn about personal safety. For example, children know how to walk safely to and from the outdoor play area.
• Children play well alongside each other. However, staff do not always plan to promote children's social development, for example by planning opportunities for them to begin to play together and cooperatively.
• Staff work well in partnership with parents. They receive good information about children when they start to attend. This is used as a basis for each child's individual care and learning. Staff liaise well with parents to support children with independence, such as with feeding and toilet training routines.
• Staff follow good procedures for assessing children's development and progress. This ensures that children's next steps for learning are accurately and clearly identified and are shared with parents.
• Partnerships with parents are good, and they comment that their children have made good progress since starting at the setting, such as developing their language and communication skills.
• Staff work well together as a strong team and state they feel well supported at work. Rigorous recruitment and vetting procedures are in place to ensure that staff working with children are suitable for the role. The provider has a strong focus on supporting staff's continuous professional development.
• Staff have good access to different training and development courses to support the outcomes for children. For example, as well as mandatory training, they also complete courses around areas including: equality and diversity; understanding children's mental health; safe sleeping; science, music and drama in early years; and autism and ADHD.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure staff support children's curiosity to extend their learning further, for example when children show an interest in things they find outdoors
• continue to support children's social development, for example by planning opportunities for them to play together and cooperatively.