Romsey Close Children's Centre Early Years Service

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive and thoroughly enjoy their time in this highly inclusive and nurturing setting. They are eager to arrive and immediately engage in the wide range of interesting and stimulating activities staff set up for them. Staff are attentive, welcoming and caring. Consequently, children build strong bonds not only with their key person but with all staff. This helps children to feel safe and secure and paves the way for seamless transitions when they move up to the next room. For example, babies wave to and greet staff they recognise who work in other rooms when they play in the garden.

The broad and deeply embedded curriculum is fully extended in the outdoor areas. As a result, children are constantly engaged and completely immersed in their learning. Children are enthused by their chosen activities and seek their friends out to join them. For example, they insist that their friends must come and make bird food with them to hang on the trees in the garden. Children focus intently, developing their fine motor skills while they thread cereal onto multicoloured pipe cleaners. While doing so, staff skilfully introduce new vocabulary and initiate conversations about the wildlife around them.

The dedicated leaders and staff are passionate about ensuring all children have the best start in life regardless of their backgrounds. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are exceptionally well supported and make rapid progress from their starting points. Additional funding is meticulously used to broaden children's life experiences, with a strong focus on supporting children to make progress in the areas of learning where they need the most support.

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

• Leaders and staff are committed to providing the highest quality of care and education for all children. Exceedingly focused plans for improvement are updated regularly with a strong emphasis on further enriching the experiences provided and outcomes for children. Leaders provide staff with highly effective supervision sessions and coaching. They mutually set monthly objectives focused on their own professional development and on enhancing the overall provision for children.
• Staff and leaders know the children in their care exceptionally well and are clear about what they want all children to achieve in readiness for school. Staff monitor children's development closely and set meaningful, individually tailored goals focused on what they want children to achieve next. Gaps in learning are swiftly identified, and focused action plans are put in place to support children with SEND. Staff work closely with other professionals involved in children's development and take account of their advice when setting developmental goals.
• Children's interests and views are highly valued, which helps them to feel a sense of belonging. They have opportunities to be part of the 'children's council', where children meet regularly with staff to share their ideas about activities they enjoy. Staff then build this into the curriculum. For example, during a recent meeting, children shared that they wanted more cooking activities, which was swiftly added into the educational plans.
• Staff practice is consistently of a high quality. They provide an extremely language-rich environment and interact with children skilfully to allow them to express themselves and extend their learning. Children articulate previous knowledge about the meaning of complex words, such as 'hibernate' and 'nocturnal', during an activity focused on winter wildlife. Babies are confident communicators and swiftly recognise the meaning of words as they hear aeroplanes in the sky and point and verbalise what they see.
• Children behave exceptionally well. They play harmoniously together, understanding the importance of sharing and taking turns. Staff gently reiterate expectations for behaviour throughout the day and skilfully teach children the reasons why those expectations are in place. For example, children articulate clearly when asked that they only run in the outdoor environment as opposed to indoors to keep themselves and each other safe.
• Staff instil a love of books and reading through shared stories and providing books for reference alongside activities. Children learn that some books provide facts and deeper knowledge. For example, during a craft activity, staff encourage children to use reference books as a guide to break down how to form the different body parts of birds with the vast resources available. Parents are encouraged to take children's favourite books home to read with their children.
• Partnerships with parents are exceedingly strong. All parents speak highly of the staff and their dedication towards children. Parents feel fully informed about their child's development and ways in which they can extend their learning at home. They feel that their children make excellent progress in their learning, particularly with their communication and independence skills. Leaders and staff recognise the importance of including parents as part of their nursery community. They provide opportunities for parents to deliver activities as part of their curriculum, such as playing the violin and reading stories with the children.
• There is a strong focus on helping children to learn about the world around them and to celebrate the diverse cultural backgrounds of their friends and the staff team. Staff bring in resources to help children understand the meaning behind different cultural festivals, such as Lohri. Children relish joining in with staff as they move their bodies in time to music and practise traditional dancing.