Partou Small World Day Nursery & Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children feel safe and secure because they are supported to develop settled relationships with their key person. Staff continually work closely with parents and carers to ensure children's care and learning needs are met. Children are encouraged to develop confidence and a joy for learning. They behave well as staff encourage them to share, take turns and interact positively with their peers. Managers have identified a clear curriculum, which focuses on building children's core skills in preparation for school. For example, children of all ages are provided with lots of opportunities to develop their fine manipulative skills. Children develop the muscles in their fingers when manipulating dough or using tweezers to pick objects up. Staff understand how this helps children to develop the skills needed for holding their pencils correctly when learning to write.

Books and stories are another key feature of the curriculum. Staff understand how these can be used to support children's communication skills. They not only read stories to children but they also re-enact them. Two-year-olds have great fun recalling familiar parts of a story as they go on a bear hunt in the outside play area. Children who speak English as an additional language are supported well. Children feel valued as staff use their home language when welcoming them into nursery. Some staff have also learned how to sing popular nursery rhymes in children's home languages. Children enthusiastically join in with singing activities and enjoy doing the actions to the songs.

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

• A strong management team oversees the provision, ensuring improvements are made. The manager completes regular supervision sessions to monitor staff's practice and performance. She works closely with staff to identify clear targets for their continued professional development. This helps to ensure children continue to benefit from good standards of care and learning.
• Staff have an overall good awareness of the skills and knowledge children should learn. However, on some occasions, daily planned activities are not challenging enough, especially for pre-school children. During a daily dough making activity, the staff member makes the dough for the children, instead of challenging them to do this for themselves. While the staff member holds conversations with children, she does not ask questions to encourage their thinking.
• Young babies are supported to develop their physical skills. Low-level furniture is carefully positioned to allow them to pull themselves to a standing position. When children move through to the toddler room, they are encouraged to learn how to hold an open-topped cup to drink from.
• Children enjoy looking at books independently and listening to stories read by staff. The manager has also introduced a lending library. This enables children to borrow books to share with their families at home.
• Children learn where food comes from as they help to plant and grow a range of vegetables. Staff also use the opportunity to support children's awareness of growth and decay.
• Children's good health is promoted as they benefit from freshly prepared meals. Pre-school children are provided with opportunities to touch, feel and smell the ingredients, prior to eating the meal. Staff report how this has had a positive impact on encouraging children to eat a wider range of foods.
• Staff repeat words to younger children and put their single words into a simple sentence. As children progress, staff encourage them to hold conversations with their peers and other adults. However, when older children are exposed to new words, staff do not take the opportunity to explain what these mean.
• Children's ideas are listened to and sought through a children's committee. Children are asked for their views on specific areas, such as the outside area. Children identified that they would like a big story chair outside as they had no chairs to sit on when they wanted to read books. This has been provided and shows children how their views are valued.
• Children are valued and supported for their uniqueness. Staff ensure familiar foods relating to children's cultural backgrounds are accessible in role play areas for all children. They also make sure that there are bilingual books to support children who speak English as an additional language.
• Staff use imaginative ways to support children's counting and recognition of number. For example, numbers are drawn onto furniture and the stairs. This enables children to identify which number they are sitting on, and encourages them to count and recognise numbers when walking up and down the stairs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review how planned activities are delivered, especially to pre-school children, so that staff consistently model language that promotes thinking and challenges children
• ensure staff provide children with explanations of unfamiliar words to support their growing vocabulary and understanding.