Smartys Pre-School Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arriving at the pre-school nursery are welcomed by the warm and caring staff. They quickly become engaged in a range of interesting activities. For example, children manipulate play dough and use a variety of resources to form construction models. Staff identify that using tools enables children to develop hand-to-eye coordination. They also use these opportunities to strengthen hand muscles. This lays the foundations for handwriting later on. Children are eager to learn new skills because staff have high expectations of them.

Staff provide a curriculum that gives clear focus to children's interests and helps all children to make good progress. Children benefit from stimulating learning activities outdoors. They have opportunities to develop their physical skills and use their imaginations well in their play. For example, children become engrossed using bricks and straw to build houses for 'The Three Little Pigs' and delight in acting out the story together. Staff help children to learn simple descriptive language. For example, they say 'strong', 'weak' and 'scary' to challenge children to develop their emerging language. Children behave well. They interact easily with their friends and learn from a young age about sharing with others in their play. Children of all ages learn about emotions, including through stories, rhymes and role play.

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

• The educational programme for children is effective. Staff know children well. They 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 complete regular assessments and monitor children's achievements, to plan purposefully for their future learning. Staff ensure that there is a clear progression in the curriculum.
• Children of all ages develop a love of books. Staff help bring the books to life by reading with enthusiasm and questioning children about what happens next. This supports children's early literacy skills. However, sometimes, questioning is not always skilful enough to develop more sustained conversations with less confident children.
• The setting strives to promote children's independence and individuality. Children experience a range of traditions and festivities, including the Chinese New Year. They enjoy learning about Valentine's Day and proudly show their finished cards where they have written their own name.
• Staff are proud of the environment and the opportunities for children to freely access activities. Consequently, children are motivated learners who express their preferences. Staff explain, with confidence, why they have prepared an activity and what they want children to learn. However, staff occasionally miss chances to extend children's mathematical knowledge while they play.
• Children develop their physical skills through a range of stimulating experiences. They develop muscle control and coordination as they fill and empty pipettes and test tubes with water to make their scented 'potions'. Children develop their small-muscle skills as they learn to hold scissors and draw pictures.
• All children have a designated key person and build good bonds with all staff. Through recent staffing changes, this system has helped to ensure children's individual needs are being cared for well. Good hygiene measures are in place and children are encouraged to develop independence with their self-care. They enjoy healthy and nutritious meals. Children learn skills that prepare them well for school.
• Parents speak highly of the pre-school nursery. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they do not enter the setting but wait at the door. Staff promote partnership working and provide regular feedback on children's progress. Parents know what their children are learning and understand what they can do at home to support them.
• Members of the management team are knowledgeable and have a clear vision of how they want to develop the nursery further. They reflect on practice and evaluate the setting to ensure that continuous improvements benefit children's learning. Staff are provided with ongoing opportunities to help them develop their practice through regular supervision and taking part in peer-to-peer observations.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to use consistent and effective questioning techniques to further extend all children's communication and language skills
• help staff to identify further opportunities to develop children's understanding of numbers, counting and mathematical concepts as they play.