Pegwell Bay Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted by staff at this caring setting. Babies are cuddled and comforted by kind staff who sing rhymes and songs to soothe and settle them. Older children eagerly explore the opportunities and activities set up. They enjoy collecting water in different-sized buckets, creating a mud lagoon together. Staff extend children's thinking by posing challenging questions and encouraging them to solve problems. For example, children work together to come up with different ways to make the lagoon bigger to stop the water escaping. This supports their imagination and creative skills.

Staff successfully promote children's independence. Children get ready for lunch quickly, washing their hands and serving themselves, spooning out their own portions. They help their friends by sharing the utensils, saying 'please' and 'thank you'. Staff have high expectations for children and are good role models. They frequently praise children. This promotes children's positive behaviour and attitudes. Staff plan a wide range of interesting and motivating activities for children based on their needs and interests. Children delight in talking about how tall the sunflowers they planted have grown. They explain that they are waiting to have a baked potato day when their home-grown potatoes are ready. This supports children's understanding of the natural world around them.

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

• Leaders and managers are passionate and proactive. They have invested in developing practice and provision. They are proud of the enhancements they have made to the environment for children and the journey they have been on. They actively seek out external support, such as specialist teachers and the local authority. This helps them continue to offer high-quality care and education.
• Parents talk highly of the wide range of experiences their children enjoy, such as extra football, yoga and ballet lessons. They appreciate the communication they have with staff. They talk of the positive settling-in processes. However, some parents report that they are not given ideas to help their children with their learning at home. This limits the amount of support they can offer.
• Staff talk highly of the focus on their well-being and the supportive nature of the setting. They appreciate the number of opportunities they have to develop their own knowledge and skills. For example, staff's interest in gardening and planting and their own spoken languages are used well to enhance children's experiences.
• Staff use children's interests to plan an effective curriculum. Children benefit from a language-rich environment where books and stories are plentiful. Young children enjoy exploring stories with staff and identifying different animals. Older children join in excitedly with a favourite rhyme and suggest ideas to adapt it.
• This encourages a love of reading.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. Staff promote children's communication skills well by using sign language to help children express themselves. They use successful learning initiatives to support children. All children make good progress.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are encouraged to share words in their home languages. Where staff speak additional languages, they use these to help children settle in. Staff celebrate children's wider families. They recently hosted a grandparents' day, where children helped to make them a special tea. This promotes children's personal, social and emotional skills.
• Staff help children learn important skills for the future. Children help tidy up, responding immediately to requests from staff. They help their friends to scrape their plates at dinner time and wait for them to finish. They are polite and kind to each other. For example, children go and find additional resources so that their friends can join in with them.
• Staff have effective partnerships with local schools. They work together to provide smooth transitions for children starting school. Leaders and managers attend regular collaboration meetings with other settings to support information-sharing. However, for those children who attend more than one setting, information is not shared fully effectively to ensure continuity for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen arrangements for sharing information with parents to help them support and extend children's learning at home
• ensure information is shared effectively to provide continuity for those children who attend more than one setting.