Rock a Tots UK Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders have worked hard since the last inspection to implement changes that have brought about improvements in the design and implementation of the curriculum. As a result, children now thrive in the welcoming and warm environment. Staff provide a broad and ambitious curriculum, which is well sequenced to build on what children already know and can do.

Children arrive happy and settle quickly at the nursery. Staff greet the children and their parents warmly, welcoming them into the setting. Children share warm, close relationships with the staff, who get to know them well. This helps children to build strong attachments to the staff and helps them to feel safe and secure. Children behave well. They are polite and kind to one another and follow the rules and routines of the nursery.

Staff support children's language skills well. For example, they use simple signs with the children, introduce new words and use repetition of words when singing songs. Staff extend children's learning through play by reading books and engaging in meaningful conversations, which help children to develop their communication skills.

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

• Since the last inspection, staff with lead responsibility for safeguarding have improved their knowledge and understanding of how to identify potential risks to children. They also now have a secure understanding of the reporting procedures and timescales for reporting concerns.
• Staff use assessment effectively to quickly identify when a child may be at risk of falling behind. They take swift and appropriate action, consulting with parents and any external professionals to provide additional support that children require. This helps to ensure that all children make good progress in relation to their individual starting points. Children have a positive attitude to learning.
• Children use their imagination well. They play with the dolls and pretend that they are poorly. Staff use books to encourage the children to think about what might be wrong with their 'baby' and introduce words such as 'scan' and 'concussion'. They read topic-related stories to help them understand and increase their knowledge.
• Children have good opportunities to count and use numbers, such as when they make towers with magnetic shapes. Children know that spiders have eight legs and count the pipe cleaners as they make spiders from dough. However, older children do not have many opportunities to compare groups of objects to begin to make simple calculations.
• At times, routines and the grouping of children is not always conducive to helping them focus and benefit fully from the wide range of learning opportunities provided. For example, during story time with children of pre-school age, other younger children take part in singing nearby. Some of the pre-school children struggle to concentrate on the story due to the raised noise levels in the room, choosing to talk to other children sitting nearby instead of listening to the story.
• Staff support children well to develop a good understanding of healthy lifestyles. They benefit from lots of outdoor learning and opportunities, including daily visits to the woods and gardens. They learn about building fires and how to act around fires to keep themselves safe. They thoroughly enjoy learning about different species of birds and the bugs they observed.
• Alongside the local authority, leaders monitor staff's practice well. Through training, they provide staff with meaningful opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills. Leaders place a strong emphasis on staff's well-being. As a result, staff feel well supported.
• Leaders work with staff to identify areas for further development. They have implemented changes to strengthen the settling-in process for babies in particular. Staff have attended baby training, including increasing their knowledge about how to support babies effectively in making attachments. This has helped babies to settle even more quickly.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop further strategies to encourage children to compare groups of objects and begin to make simple calculations
• support older children further in group activities to help them concentrate consistently and share their ideas.