Oasis Community Childcare Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children positively thrive in this caring and exciting setting. Highly experienced, warm and friendly staff nurture and support them to be the best they can. Staff have exceedingly high expectations for all children and follow the well-planned and sequenced curriculum to ensure they are ready for the next stage of learning. All children make excellent progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff plan exciting and thought-provoking activities that support children's interests. This means children are highly motivated to engage in the learning opportunities as they play. Staff are close by to expertly support and encourage children. Pre-school children use their imagination as they make potions from coloured water, flowers and small wood chips. They create stories together about them. Babies learn the names of colours as they explore boats in the sand tray, pouring and filling containers. Toddlers learn to share as they explore a dinosaur world. Staff praise positive behaviour.

Children show deep care and respect for each other, the setting and staff. For example, babies and toddlers ask politely for more using 'please' and 'thank you'. Toddlers encourage each other to share and are gentle when they are with the animals. Older children help each other with tasks and remind each other when it is snack time. Children are very well behaved and know what it expected of them. Staff are extremely consistent in supporting children and very calm.

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

• Children make rapid progress with their communication skills. Staff expertly teach all age groups new words and their meaning. For example, pre-school children know that an author writes books, and an illustrator draws the pictures. Toddlers learn words such as 'diplomacy' when they are being praised for sharing. Babies use words like 'squash', 'push' and 'pat' when playing with play dough. Adults brilliantly repeat words to children and add new words to develop their sentences and speech.
• Toddlers and pre-school children develop excellent physical skill, for example when playing in the large well-designed garden and in the forest school. They delight in climbing up steep slopes using rope ladders and climbing systems. They skilfully develop hand-to-eye coordination using hammers to bang in nails and saws to cut wood. They light fires make meaningful marks, such as shapes, and write their name on their pictures. Babies love to practise yoga and learn to coordinate their body. They find this funny and chuckle as they roll over and lift their legs.
• Children learn about numbers in all that they do. Staff skilfully interweave numbers and counting into most activities. For example, toddlers can confidently count to 10 when playing with play dough. Pre-school children know two- and three-dimensional shapes, including the properties of these shapes. Staff use labels for fractions when talking about quantity. Children use this knowledge later in their play. Pre-school children expertly sequence numbers one to 10 with a number line outside.
• Staff get to know the children extremely well when they start. They implement excellent settling-in procedures so that children feel very secure, and staff skilfully care for them by following their individual routines. Transitions into the next phase of a child's education are extremely effective and well planned. Staff sensitively encourage children to think for themselves and be independent before they start school. The manager works very closely with the local school to ensure children are equipped with the right skills to confidently begin their next stage of education.
• Partnerships with parents are excellent. Staff keep parents regularly informed about their children's progress and next steps. This means parents can continue to support their children's achievements at home. Parents trust the staff to nurture and care for their children and feel incredibly supported by the service given. Parents of children with SEND praise the support the staff give to their children when they attend the nursery and their collaborative work with outside agencies.
• The manager is incredibly knowledgeable and reflective. She supports all staff and ensures that their well-being is of paramount importance. Staff hold the manager in extremely high regard. They are highly motivated by her exemplary practice to continue to develop their own practice through training and attending workshops. The manager is extremely effective at sharing the centre's ethos with all staff and ensures it is embedded in all areas of practice. She willingly supports local nurseries with areas they feel need improving.