Silver Cloud Nursery Penwortham

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive full of smiles and eager to start their day. They are welcomed by the cheery staff team who are genuinely happy to see them. Staff create purposeful environments, indoors and outdoors. These are designed to help children make independent choices and enable them to explore using all their senses. For example, babies explore the texture of chalk as they make marks, and toddlers enjoy the tactile experience of burying their hands in the sand and watching in fascination as the sand slips through their fingers. Pre-school children use construction materials to create their own intricate structures.

The provider's curriculum is ambitious and designed to give all children the best start in life. The enthusiastic provider ensures that all children get the help and support they need. As a result, all children, including children who receive funded early years education, deprived children and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are prepared for the next stage in their learning.

Staff are good role models, who overall, support children's behaviour well. They remind children to use their manners and explain the importance of sharing toys and waiting their turn in different situations.

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

• Staff implement the curriculum for communication and language well. Tailored plans are in place for any children who are at risk of falling behind. Staff provide babies with purposeful narration as they play alongside them. They encourage babies and toddlers to say and repeat familiar words. This helps their growing vocabulary. Older children benefit from having good-quality back-and-forth discussions with staff. For example, when making houses for the 'three little pigs,' staff help children to understand how the house made of bricks is stronger than the house made of straw. Children are becoming confident communicators.
• Staff weave mathematical concepts through children's play and during routine times of the day. Babies are exposed to the names of numbers as they take part in number rhymes and songs. Staff support toddlers to count out how many scoops of water it will take to fill a teapot. As older children fill containers with water, staff help them understand why adding 'heavy objects' makes the water level increase and why some 'lighter objects' float to the top. Children are developing an awareness of early mathematics.
• Generally, children show positive attitudes to learning through high levels of curiosity and engagement. However, occasionally, staff do not provide children with consistent messages about what is expected of them, particularly during larger group activities. For example, more confident children push to the front at story time and shout over quieter children. This means children are not fully supported to understand how their actions may affect others or help them shape their behaviour and learn good habits for the future.
• Staff support children's physical development well. Babies practise their coordination as they are encouraged to roll objects and explore a 'fiddle board' where they lift, slide and manoeuvre small pieces of equipment. Toddlers practise throwing and catching a large ball with staff. Staff start by standing close to the children as they throw the ball. Then, they move further and further away as children develop their confidence in mastering this new skill. Staff model how to pedal a bicycle and encourage older children to have a go. These experiences help children to develop their large and small physical skills and contribute to them developing high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Staff receive an array of training and support from leaders. Leaders value staff and take great care to ensure their welfare and well-being are supported. Staff morale is high, which is reflected in the positive relationships they have with leaders, children and parents. This further supports the good progress children make.
• Leaders monitor the delivery of the curriculum and discuss the impact of this with staff. However, the individual feedback given to staff is not highly effective in supporting them to quickly improve the quality of their practice. This leads to minor inconsistencies in how some aspects of the curriculum are delivered, particularly during larger group activities.
• From the start of placement, leaders and staff collaborate diligently with parents, carers and other professionals involved in children's care and education to ensure children receive the support and tailored care they need. All children, including those who are relatively new to the setting, are happy, settled and gain the confidence needed to succeed in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide staff with incisive feedback on the quality of their education practice, so that they are better equipped to deliver all aspects of the intended curriculum and meet all children's learning needs
• support staff to consistently implement the setting's expectations for behaviour so that children receive consistent messages that help them understand what is expected of them.