Spring Hollies

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children interact positively with staff and go for spontaneous cuddles with them. Staff focus well on supporting children's personal, social and emotional skills within the curriculum. They work closely with parents to help children settle in gradually so they feel comfortable in the setting. Children respond well to staff's expectations and learn how to be kind and helpful to their friends. They develop good independence skills and hand-eye coordination from a young age. For example, babies start to put the colourful building blocks on top of each other and then help to put them back into a box. Toddlers are keen to help staff set the lunch table, and show good control when pouring out drinks for their friends. Pre-school children happily take turns trying to carefully hook a monkey's tail onto a jungle-themed frame in a table-top game.

Staff are keen to help children achieve through their play, and provide a broad curriculum to encourage children's learning. Overall, this helps staff to engage children in purposeful play and support them to make good progress. For example, babies develop their sensory interest in colour and texture and enjoy feeling soft, colourful scarves across their faces. They develop early problem-solving skills as they work out how to climb on and over the low, textured ramp. Toddlers become engrossed in pushing toy vehicles through paint and look at the marks they make. They draw circles and lines with a purpose and tell staff, 'it's mummy'. Pre-school children concentrate well as they help to make some gloop and see how the mixture changes when they add water. They become confident using tools, such as pipettes, to help develop their pincer grip and support their early writing abilities.

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

• The provider has worked well with staff and other agencies to improve practice since the last inspection. The provider encourages staff to develop their skills and promotes their well-being. This approach has helped staff to establish more effective communication and teamwork and provide a more consistent approach to support children's needs. For example, staff have raised their understanding of behaviour management strategies. They implement simple 'golden rules' with the children and help them to recognise how to use kind hands and walking feet and to take turns with their friends.
• The provider and staff have worked together to develop a curriculum that gives more focus to children's individual interests. They observe children's play and identify their next steps in learning. This helps them to provide activities that children enjoy and help them progress overall. However, staff are still embedding the implementation of the curriculum to build on what children know and can do consistently well. For example, pre-school children are keen to count during their action songs and rhymes. They begin to recognise numbers of personal significance as they hold up four fingers and say 'I am four'. However, staff do not extend children's counting as well as possible, for example, to help them learn how written numbers link with the quantity they count.
• Staff encourage children's language development well. Babies are keen to repeat words such as 'yes' and 'ok'. Toddlers start to say two- and three-word sentences. Pre-school children start to describe the texture of the gloop they make and say 'it feels yucky'. They watch with fascination as they scoop this onto a spoon and watch as it then starts to drip off onto their hand. Children tell staff 'it's like melted chocolate'.
• Parents speak highly of staff and say that they keep them well informed of their children's activities. Staff liaise well with parents about their children's development. However, staff do not always liaise as well with all other providers whose settings children attend. For example, they do not ensure that they are aware of all children's next steps at the other provisions, to promote continuity for children's learning at each setting.
• Staff continue to develop the play environment and have created cosy book areas indoors. Children like to snuggle into the cushions and look at a book or talk with their friends. Babies and toddlers settle easily to sleep in a comfortable, quiet area. They wake refreshed and go happily to staff for a cuddle before going to play.
• Children enjoy their outdoor play and have good opportunities to exercise and develop their physical skills. For example, children learn to control their speed and direction when using the ride-on toys. They push their dolls around in prams and practise jumping on space hoppers. Babies begin to climb, and smile when going down the slide. However, staff do not always plan for all areas of learning outdoors. This does not fully support those children who learn best outdoors.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to monitor and embed the implementation of the curriculum to ensure that staff build on children's existing skills consistently well
• make more use of play experiences in outdoor play areas, to consistently support the interests of those children who learn best outdoors in all areas of their learning
• strengthen partnerships with all other provisions that children attend to provide a more continuous approach to support all children's next stages of development.