Penn Road Children's Centre Early Years Service

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter this vibrant and welcoming setting with great excitement. They show familiarity as they put away their belongings and engage in interesting activities of their choice. Staff warmly interact with children, talking to them positively as they play. They gather detailed information from parents from the start and use this effectively to support children to settle into the nursery's routine. Caring and attentive staff make regular checks to ensure children are happy. Children demonstrate that they feel secure and comfortable.

Overall, leaders and staff plan an effective educational programme that gives children a good start in life. Core skills, such as independence is encouraged from an early age. Children learn to feed themselves at mealtimes. Even the younger ones successfully put on their coats using a 'coat trick' taught by staff. Children love to take on roles of responsibility. They are committed to carrying out the set tasks to the best of their abilities, such as being a helper at lunchtimes.

All staff model important social skills of kindness and respect. This is reflected in how children share resources. Children develop early friendships and demonstrate excellent behaviour. For example, when given the time and space by staff, older children collaboratively explore during free play. They take turns to use the equipment and help each other. This is illustrated when children investigate a problem that arises where they want to remove floating toys out of a narrow cylinder already full of water. They try out a multitude of ideas, respecting everyone's contributions. Children eventually reach a satisfactory conclusion.

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

• Leaders and staff are passionate about providing a high quality of care and education. This is demonstrated well when developing children's understanding of ways to lead a healthy lifestyle. All children have daily access to fresh air. They take part in strenuous physical activities to build their stamina. Children are supported to grow fruits and vegetables and know these are good for their health. Children clean their hands thoroughly with soap and know the germs are 'washed away'. They are reminded by staff to drink water to keep hydrated throughout the day. This shows that children learn to stay fit and well.
• Supporting children's emotional well-being is a key feature. Staff effectively teach children to learn about feelings and emotions through the use of books and sensitive interactions. For instance, they share 'the colour monster' story and talk about times when children may feel sad, happy or angry. Staff use visual prompts with younger children and detailed explanations with older ones to help them understand how their actions can affect others. Children show extremely enthusiastic attitudes to learning, such as when dancing to music.
• They smile and giggle as they express themselves creatively and imaginatively.
• Through leaders' evaluation of the provision on offer, they have identified a need to implement additional language programmes for children who display emerging gaps in their communication and language. Although some of these strategies are proving successful, there is scope for further development. Staff do not always plan and teach some interventions precisely enough for children to fully benefit. They do not consistently use a step-by-step approach that builds on individual children's existing knowledge and understanding of language.
• Indoor and outdoor learning environments for each age group are well-organised. There is a wealth of first-hand opportunities which ignite children's natural curiosity. Children show immense confidence to explore openly and freely. In the main, staff's interactions extend children's investigations, such as encouraging them to spot the similarities and differences between the features of slugs and snails found in the garden. However, these high quality interactions are inconsistent across the setting. There are times when staff interrupt children's play, while they are fully engrossed in what they are doing. This can lead to children losing focus and interest.
• Children develop a real love for books. Leaders and staff identify appropriate texts which are repeatedly shared with children. In this way, children hear rich language structures and begin to use them in their speech. In addition, children learn about the story features, such as understanding how a character's mood changes as a result of the plot. Children practice retelling the story in the correct order, understanding that stories have a beginning, middle and end.
• Parents are highly complimentary about the leaders and staff. They value the daily updates they receive via the online application and comment positively on the progress their children make. Parents share the photos and videos they receive with their children. This gives children the opportunity to talk about their experiences and consolidate their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen teaching of specific language interventions to ensure all staff consistently build on children's knowledge and understanding in a more targeted way
• support all staff to recognise the most appropriate times for them to intervene more purposefully in children's spontaneous play.