Puffins at Clystheath

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily. They are confident and settle quickly into the warm and inviting nursery environment. Children display a strong sense of belonging and engage well with the warm and caring staff. They benefit from a broad and varied curriculum, with well-planned activities which motivate them successfully and encourages them to explore and investigate. Whether they are drawing pictures with different media, such as paint and crayons, or exploring sand and water, they play well together. Children's behaviour is good.

Staff know the children well and have high expectations for them. Children are given many opportunities to help them develop skills for future learning. They practise developing their fine-motor skills to help prepare them for school and learn how to hold a pencil in preparation for writing. They develop a wide vocabulary and use their language successfully to negotiate with their peers or express their ideas.

Communication has remained good between the parents and staff throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This has helped children to feel safe and secure. Although parents do not currently come into the setting, staff greet each family individually at the door and share information with parents verbally and through an app. This helps parents to feel involved in their child's learning.

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

• Babies have strong attachments to their key person and staff. They enjoy exploring their surroundings, competently moving sand from one container to another. They confidently use resources, banging items together to explore different sounds. They investigate how items fit together, including placing pots and pans on their heads to see if they can balance them without falling. Babies smile at one another and babble as they begin to experiment with different sounds and practise their early communication.
• Children are very well supported by staff to become independent. As babies become toddlers they learn to drink from an open cup. Older children thoroughly enjoy and skilfully serve themselves at lunchtime, washing and tidying away afterwards. This prepares them well for their next stage of learning, including starting school.
• Toddlers enthusiastically explore outside. They count from 1 to 3 and join in with 'ready, steady, go' as they slide down the hill. They squeal excitedly to see who will be the first to get to the bottom. They splash in puddles and benefit from fresh air and exercise as they balance on tyres or pretend to drive a car. Although children are changed and cleaned up when they return inside for lunch, staff do not consistently check that all children's personal-care needs are considered during the time when they are playing outside.
• Older children work well together and solve problems as they use a range of materials, such as large tyres and planks of wood, to make pathways and practise their balancing skills. Children recognise that they have arranged the planks of wood in the shape a capital 'A' and can identify written numbers such as '1000' when looking at books. Staff encourage children to think about and try out their ideas. However, during some large-group activities, staff interactions are not consistent to fully support and extend each child's learning.
• The management team and staff regularly reflect on their practice and assess the quality of the provision. Staff have good training opportunities to increase their knowledge and develop their practice further. For example, staff have completed in-house training to develop a deeper understanding of children's behaviour. As a result, children demonstrate high levels of focus and concentrate for extended periods. They have an excellent understanding of expectations for behaviour, and play is extremely harmonious. Children concentrate well to master skills, such as using scissors. They wait patiently for their turn to serve themselves lunch. They have a positive attitude to learning, engaging in all activities with great enthusiasm and interest.
• The manager has an incredible knowledge of every child that attends the setting. She is highly supportive of families, and in partnership with the special educational needs coordinator she is extremely proactive in seeking early help when needed. This helps to ensure that all children receive the help they require to make the best possible progress in relation to their individual starting points.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop the consistency of staffs engagement and interactions with children during larger-group times to fully support and extend each child's learning
• improve the organisation of outdoor routines to enable staff to consistently meet children's personal care needs.