Saddleworth Stars

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff form exceptionally warm and trusting relationships with children. They create a nurturing environment where emotional well-being is prioritised. Staff know the children incredibly well. They listen carefully to children and respond effectively demonstrating the value they have for children's ideas. Children feel secure, build strong attachments and demonstrate high levels of emotional resilience and self-regulation. The large outdoor environment is expertly designed to promote children's physical well-being. The wide range of challenging and engaging activities provide children with continuous opportunities to climb, dig, build with large-scale materials and grow vegetables. Children learn how to manage their own risks through navigating a wealth of climbing apparatus. Children develop excellent physical coordination, strength and confidence, while also learning how to stay active and healthy. Children demonstrate highly positive attitudes to learning.

The curriculum is carefully designed, ambitious and challenging for all children. Staff expertly extend children's knowledge and understanding. They use real-life materials to skilfully stretch children's levels of understanding. For instance, children use mud and real ingredients like corn, cabbage and pasta to mix potions and role play. Children show deep levels of engagement, high levels of language and confidence in expressing their ideas through play. Staff support children to develop excellent levels of thinking and understanding. For instance, young children explain how the magnifying glass they are using makes things big. Children are highly engaged and confidently apply and consolidate their existing knowledge in a range of learning experiences. For example, older children use their prior knowledge of shapes to talk about how they will make a pentagon with five sides out of coloured sticks.

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

• The leadership team provide highly effective and inspirational support to staff. They offer sharply focused supervisions and ongoing professional development. Leaders provide coaching and reflective feedback through peer observations. This helps staff to be a highly skilled team who continually improve their teaching practice. Staff provide children with high quality learning experiences.
• The nursery delivers a consistently high-quality education and an ambitious and meticulously planned curriculum. Staff plan rich, meaningful experiences that build on children's interests and stages of development. Children are highly engaged and demonstrate a deep love of learning.
• Staff are highly effective in ensuring children are very well-prepared for their next stage in learning. They encourage exploration, problem-solving and perseverance. Children engage in activities such as building with natural materials, measuring with everyday objects and experimenting with textures and sounds. Children are independent, resilient learners who approach challenges with high levels of curiosity and confidence.
• The curriculum is very well thought through and carefully sequenced. Staff use detailed and precise assessments to ensure all children build on their individual starting points. Staff expertly implement the curriculum, so children continuously develop new knowledge and skills. This helps all children to make rapid progress in their learning and development.
• Staff skilfully support children's communication and language development across all age groups. They use songs, props and storytelling to introduce and reinforce vocabulary in highly engaging ways. They engage children in puppet shows and provide an environment rich in communication opportunities. For example, children play in purposefully built castles and use language to explain their ideas. Children are highly confident communicators and use expressive language to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences.
• The setting builds exceptionally strong partnerships with parents to support and extend children's learning and development. Staff provide home learning activities linked to the things children need to learn next. They invite parents in for stay and play sessions and gather parental feedback on the things they can improve. Staff provide training for parents on children's first-aid. This fully consistent approach between home and nursery enhances children's progress and strengthens family engagement.
• Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They provide consistent routines and are positive role models. Staff use visual aids, emotion cards and puppets to help children recognise and express their feelings. Children independently negotiate with others, share and resolve conflicts. Children demonstrate exemplary behaviour, show empathy towards others and confidently manage their own emotions and actions.
• Staff are excellent at promoting children's confidence and independence. They consistently offer warm, responsive interactions and encourage children to take ownership of routines, such as self-serving snacks and managing personal hygiene. Children feel secure, self-assured and demonstrate high levels of motivation and resilience.
• Staff are highly effective in supporting children who speak English as an additional language. They create a language-rich environment that celebrates diversity. Staff use dual-language books and create an environment that represents the individual background of each child. All children develop strong communication skills, feel a deep sense of belonging and make rapid progress in their language development.