Roland Lodge Daycare The Hub

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and eager to start their day. Staff build strong and trusting relationships with them. Children settle quickly and feel secure. Staff set clear boundaries and are positive role models. Children are well behaved and know what is expected of them. They show kindness to each other and happily share and take turns. Children are familiar with routines and enjoy helping staff carry out tasks, such as tidying up the toys. Staff take care to foster and promote children's confidence, self-esteem and sense of belonging. They give children compliments, such as how much they like their new lunch boxes.

Staff provide a wide range of materials and media to help children develop their creative skills. Children explore messy play activities throughout the setting, such as foam to stick plastic bricks together. These types of activities help support children's brain development, social skills and early language. Children discuss with staff the ingredients they need to make play dough. They enjoy mixing, pressing and rolling the dough. Staff support children to learn how to do things for themselves. Children explore the environment confidently and play well independently. Children serve their own dinner and attend to their personal care needs, such as handwashing. They develop their physical skills. Children confidently climb on apparatus in the garden and use a range of small tools to develop their finger and hand muscles. They are well prepared for the next stage in their learning, including the move to school.

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

• Leaders and staff have developed a broad and ambitious curriculum that supports all areas of development for all children. They plan a well-resourced and stimulating environment that brings learning to life for children. As result, children are eager to take part in activities and develop a love of learning.
• Staff get to know children well through regular observations and assessments of their development. They use this information to plan for each child's individual progress based around their needs and interests. Consequently, all children make good progress.
• Partnerships with parents have a positive impact on children's development. Parents comment how valuable their text-message groups are between them and their children's key people. Staff take time to provide parents with key information and tailored guidance to extend children's learning at home. This means that parents have confidence in supporting their children's development beyond the nursery.
• Staff promote children's communication and language skills effectively. Children develop a love of books. Staff incorporate 'words of the week' into their conversations helping to expand children's vocabularies. Staff give children time to respond to questions and formulate their own answers, encouraging children to build on their conversational skills.
• Staff well-being is a high priority for the provider. They take care to get to know each staff member and their individual needs. Staff say they feel valued and appreciated for their work and can approach the leaders at any time for support.
• Transitions into the setting are managed very well. Staff provide an extensive process of settling visits and meetings with parents to ensure children settle confidently and quickly. However, transitions within the setting, such as preparing for snack time, are not always organised as well as they could be. When changes to the routines occur, staff do not always use their initiative to ensure the continuous running of these routines. This impacts the quality of interactions provided to children during these times.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They work very closely with professionals and parents to ensure a cohesive approach to supporting their good progress and well-being.
• Staff are passionate and engage children in enthusiastic interactions. Children confidently follow staff on a 'bear hunt'. While reading the story, they explore the trays of flour and hay to mimic the environment from the book. However, in group activities staff sometimes focus on the more confident children. This means the less confident children are not always supported to make the best possible progress.
• Staff have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in relation to risk assessment. They are vigilant and keep children safe. Staff deploy themselves well to ensure children are supervised and safe at all times.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff confidence in supporting children at transition times, so they continue to benefit from high-quality interactions and uninterrupted learning opportunities
• encourage less confident children to engage fully in group activities.