Park Road Under Fives

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly and are happy in this welcoming and nurturing setting. Children have positive relationships with the staff and with their key person. This helps them to feel safe and secure. They often go to staff for comfort or a cuddle. Staff have high expectations of behaviour and consistently remind children of the boundaries, such as not running inside. Children respond positively, demonstrating respect for the staff. They follow established routines, such as washing hands before eating and helping to tidy up.

Staff encourage children to share and take turns. For example, children happily take turns to catch the ball. Children learn to listen and to follow instructions. They have great fun playing a 'follow the action' game with staff. Children show an understanding of how to keep safe, voluntarily mopping up water to avoid slips.

Staff create a curriculum that builds on the existing skills and knowledge of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff use the interests of children as a foundation for curriculum planning. For example, children enjoy puzzles. They learn to complete a familiar alphabet puzzle and make the sound of some letters. The planned activities engage the interest of the children and this helps their concentration and positive attitudes to learning.

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

• Parents speak very highly of the setting. Staff support parents to help children's learning at home. They provide parents with information to help with potty training. Parents value the bags of books and games they can take home to share with their children to further support their learning. Staff support parents to provide a healthy lunch box for their children, such as by giving them leaflets with examples.
• Staff use their observations, alongside information provided by parents and children, to plan an ambitious curriculum. Additional funding is used effectively and this helps children to make good progress.
• Children enjoy books. Staff support this interest, taking the children to the library for reading and music sessions and encouraging them to borrow books to read at home. In the setting, children curl up on the cushions to share a book with a friend or with staff. Staff use the puppet characters to help to re-tell familiar and well-loved stories. This helps children to understand story language and how a story is sequenced.
• Outside, children decide the snails they find are a family because of their size. They use magnifying glasses to observe the snails, considerately sharing these with their friends. In the sand pit, children fill buckets to make sandcastles. Children show initiative in sorting shapes into squares and triangles. However, staff do not always recognise when to build on children's interest in exploring mathematics to extend their learning even further.
• Staff develop the communication and language skills of the children. They extend their vocabulary to use words, such as 'delicious', and speak clearly to support correct pronunciation.
• Staff support the physical development of the children effectively. They visit the local park where children run and climb outside in the fresh air. Children use simple tools safely to create their dens. Children cheerfully sing songs with staff, as they use the rockers in the outside area.
• Staff identify, and provide effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Where necessary, they seek the support of external professionals and act on their advice to support the learning and good progress of the children.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are supported effectively. In the setting, children see words in their home language alongside the English translation, and this helps to support their understanding of English. Parents share their cultural celebrations, such as Eid, with the children. This helps children to understand and respect different beliefs.
• Staff benefit from regular meetings with leaders to discuss their practice and training needs to further improve their skills and knowledge. The provider has positive interactions with other settings children attend, including schools, and this helps to ensure a consistency of learning and care.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to recognise when to build on children's interest in mathematics to extend their learning even further.