Pebbles Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled. They are motivated to learn and are keen to take part in the wide range of activities on offer. Children are supported to be independent from a young age. They are beginning to recognise their name as they hang up their coats and bags on their coat peg labelled with their name. Children are confident communicators and articulate themselves well. For example, they proudly introduce themselves and their friends to visitors.

Staff provide an exciting curriculum which considers children's individual needs and helps children to make progress in their learning. Children enjoy looking at books and listening to familiar stories told by enthusiastic staff. Children feel valued as staff listen to their ideas. Staff ask them questions and allow them plenty of time to think and respond. Children demonstrate an awareness of feelings and are beginning to use the vocabulary of emotions to describe how characters in a story may feel. Staff support children to recognise these feelings in themselves. They encourage them to share ideas about what the characters could do to make themselves feel better. This helps children to learn how to regulate their emotions and prepares them for future transitions, such as the move to school.

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

• Staff know children and their families well. They regularly observe children as they play and make accurate assessments of their learning and development. Staff make the best use of information they gather to extend children's learning when teaching. For example, during a group storytelling activity, staff support children's mathematical development and challenge the most able children to recognise numbers and compare different-sized objects.
• Children's behaviour is good. They demonstrate an understanding of daily routines and respond well to staff's clear instructions. Staff prepare children for changes to routines. They use visual aids, such as a sand timer, to help children understand that they have three minutes before tidy-up time. Children tidy up after activities and proudly put away the resources they have finished playing with.
• Children benefit from plenty of fresh air and physical exercise in the garden. They make their own choices about play and are supported by observant staff who make sure children have access to any resources they may need. Children laugh with each other as they transport water across the garden and mix it with mud. They display good hand-eye coordination as they use rollers and paintbrushes to paint the muddy mixture on the side of the shed.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive good levels of support. Staff monitor children's progress and work with parents and other professionals to ensure support is put in place in a timely manner. Leaders and managers ensure that additional funding is used well to purchase resources or provide one-to-one intervention to help support children's development.
• Staff provide good levels of support for children who speak English as an additional language. When children first begin to attend, staff gather information from parents to help support children's understanding of English in the setting. For example, they collect a list of key words in children's home language. Staff support children's awareness of diversity. Children learn about different traditions and celebrations and are provided with opportunities to experience cultures beyond their own.
• The manager and staff have established good relationships with parents and carers. Staff share information verbally at drop-off and collection times, and add photos and observations to children's online learning records. However, staff do not always share enough information with parents and carers about their children's learning at the setting to fully support and extend this at home.
• Leaders and managers regularly meet with staff to review their well-being. They provide staff with useful professional development opportunities to extend their knowledge and skills. However, procedures for the monitoring of teaching are not always precise enough to identify where some staff need further support and guidance. On occasions, some staff interactions do not help to fully extend children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the already good partnerships with parents so that all parents receive regular information about their children's learning and how they can further support this at home
• monitor the quality of teaching more closely to identify where some staff need further support and guidance to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high standard.