Small Step's World

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery happily and quickly settle into the routines of the day. Even the newest children are content and are forming attachments with staff. The staff are warm and welcoming. They get to know the children very well right from the start. Staff have high expectations for all the children. Staff provide a varied and interesting curriculum that follows children's interests and supports their developmental needs. Children are keen to get involved in the activities on offer and show positive attitudes to learning. For example, in the main, children enjoy a range of sensory play, including water play. They delight as they clean the ducks in soapy water. They make good progress in their learning during their time at the nursery and gain a range of skills that aid their eventual move to school.

Children are happy and play independently. Staff are kind and calm with children. Children demonstrate positive behaviour and get on well with one another. Staff are sensitive to children and work closely with parents to ensure there is a continuity of care from home. Parents are happy with the care their children receive. They talk about the good progress their children have made, particularly in their social and language skills.

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

• The enthusiastic manager and staff team have a clear vision of what they want children to learn and achieve. They know children well and plan a range of activities based on children's individual interests, across all areas of learning. The manager is passionate about future improvements to the nursery and evaluates staff practice. She has implemented a broad training plan for her new staff members.
• Staff work well as a team to support children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They monitor children's progress to identify if a child may need additional support. Staff are effective in engaging with other professionals. In addition, staff work with parents closely to keep them updated on their children's learning.
• Staff promote children's communication and language skills well. They introduce new vocabulary to children, give a commentary to their play and use a range of descriptive words to enhance children's language skills further. Staff use effective strategies to help all children communicate. For example, staff use visual aids alongside spoken words to help children understand, communicate their needs and make their own choices. The manager has recently joined a training project with the local authority to enhance children's language skills even further.
• The nursery works well to promote children's literacy skills. Younger children enjoy listening to familiar stories. Older children delight as they learn new sounds. Staff lay out letters of the alphabet on the carpet during circle time. Children follow instructions and help their friends to find the letters to match the sounds. This helps children with their early phonics knowledge and prepares them well for their eventual move to school.
• Children enjoy a variety of opportunities to take part in activities that support and develop their physical skills, such as riding on bikes and scooters. Staff further improve activities outside. For example, they use stop and go traffic signs to play a stop and start game. Staff provide a range of healthy snacks for children to select.
• The quality of teaching is good. Overall, children enjoy a range of adult-led creative experiences. However, at times, staff do not make use of opportunities to enable children to freely explore different materials and express their own ideas, to further develop their creative skills.
• The staff team is diverse, which reflects the local community. Children learn about a range of different cultural celebrations throughout the year, such as Easter and Eid. Staff plan various activities to teach children about the wider world. However, children do not always have opportunities to explore and extend their real-life cultural experiences during imaginative play.
• Staff gather information from parents when children join the nursery. This helps the staff to know children's starting points and their wider life outside of the nursery. Staff are good role models. They teach children good manners and remind them of the nursery rules as they play. Children cooperate with each other and share resources as they play.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make more use of opportunities to enable children to explore different materials and use their imaginations, to further develop their creative skills
• enhance opportunities for young children to engage in real-life imaginative play that reflects their own cultural experiences.