Pepper-Pot Nursery Partnership

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Managers and staff greet children and their families warmly as they arrive. Children are happy to see staff and are eager to start their day. Staff pay careful attention to the environment and ensure it is set up to meet the needs of all children, encompassing their varying ages and stages of development. In addition, staff plan an array of activities and play experiences to include children's own interests, as well as their next steps in learning. As a result, children gravitate to activities of their choice and are excited and motivated to learn through their play. Staff provide praise and encouragement as children practise new skills, which supports their development of early resilience as they persist, even when things challenge them.

All staff work incredibly hard to forge positive and trusting relationships with children. They recognise children need secure attachments to feel safe and be able to explore with confidence. As such, children, including those who have recently started to attend the nursery, benefit from the nurturing and attentive staff. They are always on hand to offer children support, guidance and comfort when needed. Staff treat children with the upmost respect and value their unique characters. These early experiences of relationships provide the best foundations to support children's personal, social and emotional development.

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

• Managers, alongside their staff team, plan and implement a well-thought-out curriculum. Children access meaningful learning in line with the requirements of the early years foundation stage. Staff know individual children extremely well, including what skills they have already learned and what they are teaching them next. Learning is well sequenced, so children can build on existing knowledge and be appropriately challenged. This sets children up to succeed.
• Staff promote children's healthy lifestyles. They provide nutritious home-cooked meals and promote positive hygiene routines. Children's opportunities to be physically active are plentiful, developing their core and small muscles. For example, babies confidently pull themselves up and cruise low-level furniture. Young children persist as they twist and turn chunky puzzle pieces to fit the gap, enhancing their dexterity. These experiences prepare children well for their next stage of learning.
• Overall, interactions that children receive from staff are of high quality. For instance, staff understand the importance of developing children's early language and communication skills. They narrate children's play and use clearly spoken repetitive words, alongside exaggerated facial expressions and gestures. Children delight as staff enthusiastically read books and sing familiar songs with gusto. However, sometimes, not all staff identify and build on children's immediate curiosities in play. This means, on these occasions, staff do not fully promote children's developing language or extend learning as fully as possible. Despite this, children are making good progress in their learning.
• Children delight in accessing the outdoor spaces, which allows them various opportunities to explore safely and learn new things. For instance, children excitedly fill mini watering cans with support from staff. They eagerly water their home-grown herbs, such as mint and thyme. Staff model smelling these while introducing the herbs' names. The children are curious and take time to smell and feel them as they practise the new words. These first-hand experiences enable children to learn about the world around them.
• Effective supervision sessions are in place for staff. Managers recognise the importance of these to ensure staff have opportunities to continually develop their personal effectiveness, as well as considering staff's well-being. Managers understand the importance of reflecting on what is going well and areas that they could strengthen. However, managers are yet to identify that the organisation of some routine group times does not always promote young children's focus and attention that they strive for. As a result, children can lose interest and do not always fully benefit from the activities on offer.
• Staff are positive role models to children, which contributes to their good behaviour. They ensure that children receive consistent and gentle messages when communicating age-appropriate behavioural expectations. Any minor conflicts between children are resolved swiftly and calmly by the nurturing staff. This supports children's emotional well-being, alongside their growing understanding, as they begin to learn right from wrong.
• All staff recognise the important part they play in children's early education. They work in collaboration with parents and ensure they are kept up to date regarding their child's day and ongoing progress. Parents are highly complementary of the care and learning their children receive. They place a high value on the staff, who are fundamental to their and their children's positive experiences.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support all staff to consistently recognise opportunities that arise from children's immediate interests to fully extend their learning
• review the organisation of group times to ensure young children maintain their engagement and fully benefit from the intended learning.