Smart Play Hounslow

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children clearly enjoy attending this safe and welcoming nursery. Staff have warm relationships with children and the atmosphere is bright and happy. Children take pleasure in finding their photographs as they arrive at nursery. Information about each child's care needs is gathered from parents before they start. This helps staff to plan effectively to support children's emotional needs as part of a gradual settling-in process. Children are confident and growing in independence. They enjoy playing with staff, who use children's interests as a starting point for their learning. Staff have developed play spaces to provide great learning opportunities for children. For example, they have created dens inside to help provide spaces for children's imaginations to grow.

Children develop good skills. They create pictures and use tweezers to pick up fruit for snack, which helps them to strengthen their hands and fingers in readiness for early writing. Children's behaviour is good and they are kind to their friends. Children are supported to share toys and solve problems. For example, they work out how to use foam blocks to create a pretend road, matching shapes together. They demonstrate great pride as they eagerly show adults what they have achieved. Children practise their physical skills as they steer ride-on toys and attempt to catch bubbles made from the water solution.

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

• Children demonstrate good levels of curiosity as they explore their learning environment. They move comfortably between indoors and outside. Children proudly demonstrate their increasing physical skills. They show delight as they blow huge bubbles that float off into the sky. Some children try to chase and catch them. Staff encourage children's awareness of safe behaviour as they take developmentally and age-appropriate risks in their activities. For example, children learn to use a knife with care to cut vegetables as part of an activity outside.
• Parents speak very positively about the setting, warmly describing the friendliness of the staff team and how happy their children are to attend. Staff provide parents with regular updates about their children's progress and share what parents can continue to do at home to support their children further. This approach helps to support continuity for children.
• Staff support children to become independent. They help children to understand why they should make healthy choices at snack time. Staff support children as they learn to pour their own drinks. They promote snack time as a social occasion and ask children about their preferences for their play and learning. This daily feedback encourages children's thinking and discussion and helps staff to understand their wants and needs.
• Staff use repetition of key words, to support children's early language development and those children with communication difficulties. They repeat back and pronounce words correctly, as children show emerging language skills. Staff ask questions to extend conversations. However, on some occasions, children are not given time to think and respond to questions and answer for themselves.
• The manager and staff have created a development plan to enhance their curriculum since the previous inspection. They provide a curriculum that follows children's interests and the development of the skills that they will need for future learning.
• Staff assess children's skills and knowledge and use the information to provide activities and opportunities to enhance their learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported effectively. Staff use appropriate strategies which help improve outcomes for children.
• Staff have attended training recently that has helped children with their listening and attention skills. Staff's knowledge and understanding of how children learn help to support their good progress. However, the manager does not use the supervision system in place to its full extent, to help her precisely identify ways to raise the quality of teaching to an outstanding level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support children's good language and communication skills even further, including allowing children enough time to think and respond to one question before moving on to the next one
• strengthen the supervision of staff to identify their professional development needs precisely and raise the quality of teaching to an outstanding level.