Rising Stars Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the nursery excited to start their day. Enthusiastic and caring staff greet them warmly. Children confidently choose their activities to start the day, which demonstrates that they feel safe and secure. Children thrive on purposeful interactions with staff in the role-play areas. They act out real-life experiences, such as birthdays and tea parties. Outdoors, children demonstrate good physical development. They navigate bicycles over hilly ground, race small balls though tubes, and make 'potions' in the mud kitchen. This develops children's fine and gross motor skills.

Children are kind and polite towards each other. Staff have created a respectful and positive environment through calm and caring interactions. Children talk about their peers and welcome them to the nursery in the morning through song. Children demonstrate a strong sense of belonging and are learning skills to develop strong relationships.

The manager knows the children and the local area well. She is aware of what children need to develop and thrives on achieving better outcomes for children. Staff understand how children develop. They assess what children already know and build on this effectively. Children are making good progress in their development.

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

• The curriculum is well focused. The manager and staff clearly assess children's development needs to form their intent for learning. Staff want children to leave the nursery as social and secure children, ready for school. The curriculum focuses strongly on communication and language. Staff use purposeful interactions and questions with children to develop their language and understanding.
• Mathematics is well embedded. Staff introduce positional language through role play. For example, staff talk to children about the bread being on top of the plate. Older children are beginning to recognise numbers. Staff challenge children to build on what they already know by encouraging them to find quantities of objects to match a specific number. This helps children to understand that numbers have purpose.
• Children are making good progress, particularly children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The manager has formed good working relationships with outside agencies to support children's individual needs. Staff are clear on what they are working on with children and know what they want them to achieve next. Everyday activities, such as lunchtime, are used as learning experiences to keep closing gaps in development.
• Overall, partnerships with parents are strong. Staff communicate verbally with parents about the children's day. Parents express that they have good relationships with the staff and manager. Staff have started to provide parents with more information about the children's development. However, this is not yet fully embedded. This results in not all parents being aware of how they can support their children's next steps in their development at home.
• Children behave well. They play happily together and take turns. Staff use different strategies to support children to manage their behaviour. They are aware that certain techniques will only work for certain children. This demonstrates that staff have a good understanding of the children in their care and how to support their individual needs.
• The manager puts a strong emphasis on well-being. Staff express the support they get. This results in a committed and hard-working team of staff who want to achieve the best outcomes for children. Staff assess children's well-being regularly. Staff use this tool to notice dips in children's emotional development so that they can support them early.
• Children who speak English as an additional language make good progress. Staff display words from the children's home language and create word books to support their learning of key words. They often talk about different places children come from, which is displayed on a map.
• Staff promote children's good health. They use everyday experiences to encourage healthy eating and support children with their self-care, such as washing hands and wiping their own noses. This helps to promote healthy lifestyles and supports children to manage their own health.
• The manager has developed a holistic approach to supporting the needs of children. She helps families to gain support for their children's needs as well as the needs of the family. Parents express that the support is not just directed at the child, but the staff are there for the whole family. This demonstrates the team's passion to achieve the best possible outcomes for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve partnerships with parents further by sharing children's next steps in their development with them to help them to continue children's learning at home.