Snapdragons Nursery Horfield

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children become kind and compassionate citizens through calm and connected relationships with staff. Leaders develop a safe and harmonious environment for both staff and children to flourish. This helps children and staff to feel secure and valued.

Leaders create an ambitious, well sequenced and engaging curriculum that prepares children for their future learning. Staff provide many experiences for children to build on their knowledge about living things, for example, through local trips, such as, to the local aquarium, farm visits and community events. They use books and provide play opportunities at the setting and support children to make connections between their experiences. Consequently, children build on what they already know and encounter awe and wonder in their learning. In addition, staff invite local artists to visit and teach children how to mould and manipulate clay. Children eagerly participate and learn to press and pinch lumps of clay into shapes. This helps children to develop their creativity and fine motor skills.

Staff prepare a wide range of organic meals and snacks for children to eat, which children enjoy eating. Leaders prioritise well-trained staff to work in the setting's kitchen to maintain a high standard of menu choices for families. Furthermore, they prepare ingredients and recipes in a bag for parents to replicate the meals at home. Children excitedly cook at home and share their experiences with the setting. Consequently, children learn the importance of nutrition and how to keep their bodies healthy.

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

• Leaders have a sharp focus on staff training and development. They give staff effective feedback on their practice that helps to continually improve staff's teaching. Leaders bring settings together to learn, develop and share best practice from observations and assessment. This empowers staff to develop themselves to build on and improve children's experiences at the setting.
• Staff implement the curriculum well, ensuring that children benefit from rich experiences to help them to meet their milestones. For example, children visit the local swimming pool to learn how to swim. Staff manage this safely and support children to develop their understanding of water safety. This helps children to develop important life skills and make progress to become independent in the water.
• Staff support children to be 'capable and proud of increasing independence' through carefully planned opportunities to practise self-help skills. For example, staff encourage children to learn how to put their own coats on. Children follow staff's instructions to hang their coats up on the peg independently.
• Children freely explore the garden. During play, staff help them to develop their critical thinking skills. For example, when children need help to reach the sandpit, staff guide them to fetch bricks from the play construction area to build steps to stand on to reach the sand. Once successful, children enjoy making holes in the sand with their fingers, noticing the texture of the sand stuck to their hands. Children solve problems and become independent.
• Staff are caring and alert to babies' care needs. They help babies learn to listen to their bodies so they recognise when they are tired and need to rest. Staff sensitively encourage babies to sleep in the dedicated peaceful area and stay with them, helping them to fall asleep. They regularly check on the welfare of babies to ensure that they sleep comfortably and safely. Babies wake up well rested and ready to learn.
• Staff engage in meaningful conversations at lunchtime with older children. However, younger children do not benefit consistently from the same opportunities to develop their communication skills. For example, staff focus on operational tasks. They do not use these moments to have meaningful conversations or develop key vocabulary to support all children as well as they could in their language development.
• Children listen to stories with interest to help them develop in their literacy skills. Although, at times, staff do not deliver high-quality story times due to the impact of poorly planned transitions. For example, children find it difficult to maintain their focus on the stories due to other staff completing tasks that are noisy and distracting. This impacts on some children's behaviour and attitudes as they become disruptive and restless.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop consistency in the quality of staff's teaching to help the younger children learn key vocabulary and engage more in conversations
• strengthen the organisation of transitions to ensure that children can remain focused in their learning and development.