Paintpots (Manchester) LTD

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the setting happy and settle quickly. Friendly and enthusiastic staff welcome them as they arrive. Children form strong bonds with the staff. Throughout the nursery you can hear the laughter of children as they play. Staff support children's emotional well-being. They provide cuddles and positive words of encouragement. Children demonstrate confidence and security as they freely explore the environment.

The manager has clear intentions for what she wants children to learn. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the areas of learning and development and how they implement these. Babies develop their small and large muscles as they explore the ball pit with enthusiasm. Toddlers develop early writing skills as they mark make in sand. Pre-school children begin to learn about the world around them by looking at non-fiction books with staff. Children make good progress in their development.

Children behave extremely well. They benefit from a clear routine and supportive staff. The staff follow children's interests. For example, pre-school children show an interest in building, so staff introduce real-life tools into their play. This helps enhance children's engagement in learning. They also develop an understanding of how to keep themselves safe.

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

• Children make good progress, particularly children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Recently, a special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) has joined the staff team. She works closely with the children to provide one-to-one support. Children are demonstrating good progress towards their targets, as new educational learning plans have been put into place. This helps to close gaps in children's learning.
• Staff show a good understanding of the areas of learning and development. They follow children's interests and incorporate the overall learning intent for all children into planned activities. However, this does not always meet the specific next steps for individual children. This leads to children not consistently benefiting from planned experiences which are tailored to meet their individual learning needs.
• Staff support children who speak English as an additional language. Staff use objects and key words in their home language to support children's understanding of English. They work closely with parents to share key words. This helps them meet children's specific needs.
• Overall, children's language development is well supported. Some staff ask children thought-provoking questions to challenge their thinking. Staff who work with babies sing rhymes and read stories, so babies hear spoken language. However, sometimes staff provide a lot of language for children in quick succession. This does not give children enough time to process what has been said to them. This affects children developing their conversational skills.
• Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. Staff deploy themselves effectively around the environment to support children's learning. For instance, when a child starts a new activity a member of staff will sit with them to model what to do. This helps children engage in learning for longer periods.
• Staff meet the needs of children effectively. When children have specific requirements, staff receive additional training from parents and outside agencies to support the children. This helps to ensure children's care needs are well met.
• Children form close bonds with staff. They seek out staff for cuddles and to share stories about the exciting adventures they have. Staff in the baby room are in tune with babies' non-verbal cues and use these to meet their needs. This demonstrates how well the staff know the children.
• The manager continually reflects on practice. She is open to change and wants to achieve a high standard of care and education for children. The management team works closely with staff to understand their needs and provide appropriate training. This helps to achieve good outcomes for children.
• Parent partnership is strong. Parents say staff communicate with them well about their children's development. Staff regularly send parents reports about children's development, which include the areas of learning they are working on with children. This supports children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to focus more precisely on individual children's next steps when planning activities, to help children make even better progress
• develop staff's understanding of children's communication and language development further, to provide children with more time to respond.