Salterlee Under Fives Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely happy and confident. They have developed exceptional relationships with staff, whom they trust implicitly. Behaviour throughout the nursery is impeccable. Children are supported to understand and manage their own emotions. They are kind towards peers who may be upset.

Children show a strong desire to explore and learn. They approach their play with extremely high levels of determination and confidence. For example, older children eagerly accept the challenge to make dough into a variety of different-sized cupcakes. Staff expertly support children's experiences as they make links between play at home and nursery, using the wide range of utensils.

Staff use the local area extensively to broaden the range of learning experiences offered. Children are exposed to rich and diverse opportunities to learn about the world around them. For example, they enjoy outings to a local farm where they care for alpacas. Children are experts in their surroundings. They talk confidently about the life cycle of blackberries and the changing seasons.

Staff speak with immense pride about the wonderful achievements of all children. They have exceptionally high expectations of what children can achieve, and children display excellent attitudes to their learning. Staff encourage children to talk about their feelings. This helps them to understand the impact that their behaviours can have on others.

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

• The curriculum is expertly constructed to build on what children have already learned. Staff quickly identify where children need support and guidance. They plan meaningful activities to close any learning gaps. As a result, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make excellent progress in their learning and development.
• Children become confident and fluent users of language. Staff support language development with exceptional skill. They ensure that all interactions are of a high quality, modelling language with precision and clarity. Where children's language skills are lower than expected, staff apply highly effective action to close gaps in progress. They make sure that children can communicate with high levels of confidence.
• Children learn to care for each other and develop excellent social skills. Staff teach children to manage their own conflict and resolve difficult situations for themselves. Older children help each other eagerly. For example, they remind their friends to bend their knees when walking down a steep incline. Children work together as a team. They follow the rules and make sure everyone is equally involved.
• Staff understand exceptionally well the levels of development that children go through before they can become writers. They provide rich activities for children to build up their physical strength and hand control. Children become highly motivated to make marks in materials such as flour and water. They make impressive progress in making purposeful marks, such as letters in their name and a variety of familiar shapes.
• The innovative staff engage children in meaningful tasks to teach them about global factors, such as climate change. For instance, children actively recycle different materials and take part in community projects, such as litter picking. This empowers them to make a difference and supports them to adopt higher levels of respect, care and consideration for the world around them.
• Support for children with SEND is outstanding. Staff go over and above to secure timely interventions and target support for individual children, at the earliest opportunity. This is contributing to the rapid and substantial progress that all children are making over short periods of time.
• Children experience an entirely seamless move to school. Truly exceptional partnership working with the local schools creates a cohesive approach to supporting children in every element of their school readiness.
• Leadership and management of the nursery are outstanding and inspirational. The very knowledgeable and experienced manager and head of operations provide excellent support to the highly qualified staff team. Support for staff's continuous professional development is a priority. The dedicated staff benefit from opportunities to carry out roles and responsibilities that reflect their skills and interests.
• Partnerships with parents are excellent. Leaders and staff recognise that the range of vocabulary children acquire early on has a lasting impression on their future success. Parents talk with enthusiasm about the lending library and share how beneficial this has been in supporting their children's language at home. Parents praise how the nursery involves them in their children's learning.