Roselands Community Nursery And Playschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are enthusiastic about coming to the setting and eagerly choose from a wide range of resources. They benefit from a large outdoor area to help support their physical development. Younger children enjoy the challenge of climbing a wall made of disused car tyres to strengthen their leg muscles. Older children use spray bottles filled with water to aim at targets. This helps to develop their hand and finger muscles in preparation for early writing.

Children behave well. Staff are confident in helping children to learn right from wrong. Younger children learn how to share resources with their friends. Older children understand and follow the rules and boundaries well. Children have formed close relationships with staff and feel safe and secure.

Managers have high expectations for children. They carefully plan activities that are of interest to children, such as making a pretend spider web from rope to support children's fascination of 'superheroes'.

Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, staff and children are currently unable to visit the local care home to see the elderly residents. However, they continue to communicate with them. Children write letters and send photographs of their experiences.

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

• Children are confident and develop good imagination skills. Older children enjoy building a boat with large blocks. They pretend they are fishing for sharks using wooden spoons as a rod. Younger children pretend to make chocolate cakes using compost and metal tins.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Staff work closely with local charities to support families in need. They engage parents and children in fundraising activities and donate the proceeds. Parents praise managers and staff on how well they meet children's care needs. They state the setting is committed to children to ensure they receive the support they need. Children make good progress from their starting points.
• Managers have a thorough understanding of what children need to learn. They provide age-appropriate activities to support this. However, managers do not help all staff to understand how to build on what children already know. Occasionally, some staff do not make the most of opportunities to extend children's learning. At times, chances for staff to enhance children's key skills needed for their move to playschool and beyond are not always implemented as well as they could be.
• Care practices are effective. Older children wash their hands independently and younger children have frequent nappy changes. Staff change children's clothes regularly should they become wet from playing with water. This prevents them from becoming too cold.
• Younger children enjoy listening to and learning about traditional stories. They understand simple sentences and repeat words staff use to help develop their language skills. However, occasionally, staff do not always extend older children's vocabulary to encourage them to connect ideas, share thoughts and learn new words.
• Prior to COVID-19, children visit places in the community. Staff take children to the library and engage in outings to the theatre. Managers recognise these are valuable experiences for children. They plan to continue these in the future to support children's understanding of the world.
• The setting has good links with local primary schools. Children become familiar with the environment during their settle sessions. This helps them to feel secure when they move to school. Partnerships with health visitors are also effective. Parents can access a wealth of information from health visitors via the setting. This ensures they receive the necessary support for themselves and their families.
• Managers carry out frequent supervision meetings for staff and provide them with regular training opportunities. For example, staff learn how to support children who may experience trauma. They nurture all children's personal, social and emotional development effectively. Children's well-being is paramount to staff.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that all staff are aware of how to move children forward in their development, to help them make even more progress
• provide older children with more opportunities to extend their language skills, to develop their vocabulary even further.