Peekaboo Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive and enjoy their time in this friendly setting. Staff welcome each child with a smile as they arrive and ask how they are feeling today. Children show they feel safe and secure. They separate easily from their parents and engage in play as soon as they arrive. New children settle quickly. Staff offer cuddles and reassurance and respond quickly to children's needs. Children develop close bonds with staff. They are confident to ask staff to join them in their play and go to them for help.

The manager and staff take full account of children's needs when planning the curriculum. They use information from parents to provide opportunities that widen children's cultural experiences. They build on children's previous learning and have high expectations for all children. Children are resilient and confident problem solvers. For example, they enjoy testing different objects to find which collects the most water. Staff place a high priority on children being independent. Young children learn to pour their own drinks and wash their own hands and faces. Older children put on their waterproofs, coats and wellies by themselves. Children are polite, and they show an understanding of the feelings of others. For instance, children say 'excuse me' when someone is in their way.

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

• The manager and staff strive to improve their practice. Staff appreciate the coaching and support from the manager. They use feedback from colleagues and good practice they observe in visits to other nurseries to think of ways that they can better meet the needs of the children who attend. For instance, they introduced cooking sessions in the pre-school room to support children's understanding of how to prepare foods and further extend their independence skills.
• Staff identify when children need extra support and swiftly seek appropriate advice and guidance. They build effective relationships with other agencies and professionals. Staff support the learning and development of disadvantaged children and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. All children make good progress.
• Staff know the children well. However, sometimes they focus for long periods on the children they are interacting with and do not always extend the learning of children playing on their own nearby. These children do not always receive the same level of challenge and opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills.
• Staff promote children's health well. For example, children benefit from regular fresh air and exercise. Staff provide nutritious snacks and monitor children's lunch boxes to ensure that they have healthy options. They teach children how to brush their teeth and why this is important. They communicate weekly tips for parents to support children's good oral health at home.
• Staff work closely with parents and value their input. They seek feedback from parents to support improvements in the setting. For example, they have created a separate entrance to the toddler room to ensure that parents can easily speak to their child's key worker and settle their child in their room.
• Overall, staff place a high priority on promoting children's language and communication development. They use strategies to support children who learn English as an additional language and those with speech and language delays. For example, children learn to communicate using signing and picture boards alongside learning to pronounce the words. However, staff sometimes miss opportunities to promote babies' speech further and do not always encourage babies to build on their communication skills.
• Staff teach children to appreciate the similarities and differences of others and what makes them unique. For instance, they use picture boards to talk about the different people in children's families. Children are curious to learn about other cultures, which prepares them well for life in modern Britain. For instance, they enjoy sharing books written in different languages and are keen to find out how the words are pronounced.
• Children develop good physical skills. Staff support babies to pull themselves up to stand. Younger children also develop their core strength as they hold their bodies upright to go down slides. Older children build their large muscle strength and balance while they fill large pots with sand and carry bowls of water outside.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that staff extend all children's learning to offer them appropriate challenge
• improve staff's interactions to develop babies' communication skills further.