Shining Pearls Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and relaxed in this welcoming nursery. They develop strong bonds with the caring staff. Children who are new to the nursery settle quickly.

Children behave well. They like to do things for themselves and demonstrate a can-do attitude. They learn to dress themselves and hang their coats on their peg after playtime. Children use jugs skilfully as they pour water and milk at lunchtime. They are inquisitive learners who explore the environment and choose their own play with confidence. Children demonstrate positive attitudes towards learning. They learn about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Children enjoy preparing fresh fruit snacks to share with their friends. They have plenty of opportunities to be physically active. For example, outdoors children use wheeled-toys and see-saws and kick and throw balls.

Children develop an understanding of colour mixing and what happens when they combine two colours of paint. They join in with music and singing sessions, which helps to promote their language development and literacy skills. Children explore the sounds of different musical instruments, such as tambourines, xylophones and maracas. They develop their imaginations as they become engrossed in role play linked to real-life situations, such as a visit to the doctor.

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

• The management team have devised a broad and balanced curriculum, that covers all seven areas of learning. They are enthusiastic about children developing the necessary skills and attitudes they need for future learning, including their move on to school. Managers monitor children's progress to help identify any gaps in children's learning and provide additional support where necessary. In addition, they regularly evaluate the setting to identify where they can make improvements, to further enrich the service they provide.
• Staff make regular observations and assessments of children's learning. However, on occasions, they do not use this information to plan activities that match children's learning needs precisely enough. This means that sometimes children do not always fully engage.
• Parents praise the staff, who they say are friendly, kind and a key strength of the nursery. They say their children make good progress, particularly with their speech and confidence. Parents appreciate the ideas they receive from staff to support their children at home. However, staff do not always obtain detailed information from parents about what their children can already do when they first start. This would help staff to build a more comprehensive knowledge of children's learning needs an allow them to plan even more effectively from the outset.
• Staff manage children's behaviour well. They help children to understand their feelings and the impact of their behaviour on others. Children follow routines and instructions well. For example, they respond to the signals for 'tidy-up time' and lunch. Children display good behaviour.
• Staff provide lots of praise and encouragement which helps to promote children's confidence and self-esteem.
• Staff support children to develop their small-muscle skills in readiness for future writing. Children have fun as they use chalk, paints and pens. They handle different tools, such as brushes and glue sticks as they create pictures.
• Staff help children to acquire good language skills. They listen carefully to what children have to say and engage them in discussions. Staff repeat meaningful words and phrases and model language well.
• Staff support children's mathematical development well. Children learn to count and recognise shapes and numbers.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is effective. Staff work closely with children's families and other professionals to provide targeted support to help children achieve the progress they are capable of.
• There are good arrangements in place to support children who are learning to speak English as an additional language. Staff find out keywords from the child's home language to use in the nursery. This helps children to understand the routines, develop their language skills and communicate their needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus coaching and professional development to further develop the skills and knowledge of staff in planning and implementing activities that match precisely to children's individual learning needs
• consistently obtain detailed information from parents about their children when they first start, to help build a more comprehensive knowledge of children's previous achievements, to help staff to plan more effectively for children's learning from the outset.