Rosies Little Blessings

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a warm, welcoming environment for children and their families. Children settle into the routines of the day, as staff take the time to get to know children's individual care needs. For instance, staff offer cuddles and reassurance as they recognise younger children are becoming tired. Babies benefit from the warm interactions they get from the key staff who care for them. These strong nurturing relationships have a positive impact on children's confidence, self-esteem and well-being. Children behave well. Staff place a strong focus on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development. For instance, staff often refer to 'kind hands' and talk about the feelings of others, during activities. This helps children to learn how to respect and value the differing needs of their friends.

Leaders and staff create a broad curriculum of play experiences, which support children's motivation to learn. For instance, children excitedly share the butterflies they have cared for. They talk about what caterpillars need to become butterflies and how they are going to 'let them out into the air'. Staff use good opportunities to teach children mathematics. Children learn how to count, to recognise numbers and to estimate how much, and how big items are. These skills support older children in laying strong foundations for future learning, including their eventual move to school.

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

• Leaders and staff have high expectations for children. The manager is a strong leader. She understands the curriculum she wants to provide for children and the benefits this has for their learning and development. Her vision is shared with staff, who arrange the learning environment so that it stimulates children's engagement and meets their needs. However, for some staff who are new to their roles, the understanding of what they want children to learn is not yet fully embedded. At times, some activities are not highly focused on what skills and knowledge children need to learn next, to help them make even better progress.
• Staff are kind and attentive, which supports children to develop secure bonds with them. This helps all children to feel comfortable in their surroundings and to settle quickly at nursery. Staff recognise the importance of the early relationships children establish with staff and their peers. They teach children about kindness through their daily routines. Children are kind and considerate in their play. For instance, children excitedly use paints to make red dots on their friends' noses, when some children do not want this done, children listen to their friends and recognise that not everyone wants to join in.
• Leaders support the staff team well. They meet regularly with staff to ensure their ongoing suitability. Senior leaders place staff well-being as a high priority. Staff say they like working at the setting and feel valued in their roles.
• Supervisions for senior staff are completed and the manager uses her observations of staff practice to offer coaching and support. However, the manager is yet to implement clear, targeted plans to support those staff who are new to their roles, to help ensure consistently high-quality care and education across the setting.
• The staff team have developed close relationships with parents, carers and other professionals, to support children and their families well. Parents and carers speak highly of the nursery and their children's key person and the manager. They say that they are very supportive and offer advice and guidance, which helps them to continue learning at home. For instance, staff share information about weaning and promoting children's speaking skills, to help to support children's learning and development in the home environment.
• Staff place a strong focus on teaching children about the world they live in. They provide children with hands-on experiences to ignite their curiosity in the natural world. For instance, children learn how to plant, tend and harvest fruits and vegetables. They care for caterpillars as they learn about the life cycle of butterflies. Staff recognise the value this has to children's education. They teach this aspect of the curriculum well, to ensure that children develop a broad understanding of the world around them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop clearer links between the intent and delivery of activities to shape these to the individual learning needs of each child
• enhance the arrangements for staff supervision to ensure that all staff, particularly those new to their roles, continue to improve their practice and subject knowledge over time.