Orchard Lea Nursery Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at this friendly and supportive setting. Staff take the time to get to know each child and their family. They use home visits to gather key information from parents. Staff use this to follow familiar care routines and to provide activities based on children's interests. For example, staff recognise older children's interest in dinosaurs. They create a 'dinosaur museum' and encourage children to visit the museum to look at books about dinosaurs. Children then spend time using rakes and spades to pretend to dig for dinosaur bones in the garden. This helps children to develop positive attitudes to their learning.

Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children listen to staff and follow the clear and consistent routines staff have embedded. Staff have carefully designed the environment and daily routines to develop children's independence. Babies and toddlers have boxes and drawers with photos of themselves on to help them find their own belongings. Older children look for their name on their coat pegs, drawers and place mats. This helps children to understand what makes them unique and gives children a sense of belonging.

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

• Leaders have developed a broad and sequenced curriculum. They have a clear understanding of what they want children to learn. There is a strong focus on supporting babies to make secure attachments and promoting toddlers' emerging independence. For older children, the priority is to ensure that they have a strong foundation in the skills and knowledge they need to be ready for school.
• Staff deliver the curriculum well. They provide a wide range of motivating and exciting opportunities both indoors and outdoors. Children benefit from activities such as minibus trips to a nearby forest school, dance sessions and walks around the local area to help them learn about road safety. They take part in regular well-being sessions to understand and find ways to manage their feelings and emotions.
• Children build strong bonds with their key person. Babies show they feel safe and settled as they freely explore their environment. They look back at their key person, who responds with smiles, praise and encouragement. However, at times, some staff who work with babies and young children do not make the most of these interactions. Staff sometimes miss opportunities to talk to babies and young children about what they are doing, seeing or feeling as they engage in their play. This limits babies' exposure to new words and does not extend their early language and communication skills.
• Staff use effective monitoring and assessment processes to ensure that children make continuous progress. They swiftly identify any gaps in children's learning.
• Staff work with parents and professionals to put strategies and support in place to help children achieve their next steps. This inclusive approach enables all children to make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff engage with children in a warm and positive manner. They regularly praise children's achievements and enthusiastically join their play. However, there are inconsistencies in the quality of these interactions. At times, staff's explanations, responses and questions do not sufficiently challenge older children's thinking. This means older children's learning is not always fully extended.
• Staff work in close partnership with parents and provide many opportunities to involve them in their children's learning. Staff regularly update parents about their children's progress and share ideas on how parents can support their children at home. Parents comment on how welcoming and caring staff are, and how quickly their children settle and grow in confidence.
• Leaders are reflective, passionate and committed to continuously improving what they offer children and their families. They ensure that staff have regular opportunities to keep up to date with changes in the curriculum. They support staff to understand their roles and responsibilities. There are effective systems in place to support staff's well-being. However, supervision processes do not enable leaders to identify specific gaps in staff's knowledge and skills. Professional development opportunities are not always specifically targeted to meet the learning needs of individual staff.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that staff who work with babies and young children have a secure understanding of how to fully develop young children's emerging language and communication skills
• support staff to use effective questioning and give children detailed explanations appropriate to their stage of development to fully extend children's learning
• strengthen supervision processes to enable leaders to identify areas for development in staff's skills and knowledge and provide targeted training and professional development opportunities to address any inconsistencies and enhance staff's practice to even higher levels.