St Francis Family Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are confident and self-motivated learners. They have close, trusting relationships with staff. Staff help children to feel valued and secure, for example, by displaying their work attractively and praising children for their efforts. Staff display photographs of the children's families and this helps children to feel a strong sense of belonging at the nursery.

Children enjoy a broad variety of activities. They use sponge rollers, paintbrushes and a range of textures and materials to create different effects on paper. This supports their creative development well. Children have good physical skills. For example, they climb and balance on planks and use balls and bats to develop their coordination skills effectively. Children develop small-muscle control, for instance, by handling different tools in creative activities. Children have good mathematical skills. Staff count musical beats with children using different instruments and sing counting songs. They point out different shapes in the environment and teach them shape names. Children behave in safe ways. For instance, they tuck their chairs under the table to help prevent hazards. They handle tools with care and caution.

There is breadth and balance in the curriculum. All children make good progress and gain valuable skills in preparation for school.

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

• Staff teach children good communication, language and literacy skills. For example, staff use a range of story props to engage children well with stories. They sing a wide range of songs and rhymes to teach children new words. Children find their names and match it to their coat pegs when they arrive each day. This supports children's communication, language and literacy skills well.
• Staff teach children about difference. They play musical instruments and sing songs from around the world. Staff explain significant religious or cultural events and celebrate these with the children.
• Staff help children to gain understanding about their emotions. They teach children the names of different feelings, read stories about them and ask children how they are feeling when they arrive in the morning. This supports children to understand their emotions and those of others.
• Children are able to do things for themselves. For example, they serve themselves at snack time and help to tidy up at the end of play sessions. Children learn to put their coats and shoes on. Children learn how to take care of themselves. For instance, staff teach children about the need to wash daily and wear clean clothes as children bathe dolls and wash their hair.
• Children behave well. Staff have high expectations of children. They talk to children about the reasons why some behaviour is not acceptable and use praise to encourage positive behaviour.
• Staff work successfully with parents. They spend time each day talking with parents to give feedback on children's well-being and development. Staff provide ways for parents to support children's learning, such as by giving them books to read with their children at bedtime.
• The manager provides good support to staff. She meets with them individually to review how their work is going and to provide support where needed. The manager spends time in the nursery to observe and feedback to staff and this supports the development of their skills. Staff have attended different courses, including a course on supporting children with autism spectrum disorder which has led to better awareness in this area.
• Staff provide children with healthy routines. They give children fresh fruit and nutritious snacks to support healthy eating. Staff promote children's awareness of good oral hygiene. For instance, they provide dummy-mouth models for children to practise brushing teeth and they read stories about good oral hygiene. They teach children about food and how some foods can help to build strong teeth.
• Overall, children develop good understanding of the world. For example, staff teach children about aquatic life and how sea creatures live. However, this area has not been consistently developed to cover how things change in the natural world.
• Children concentrate well and enjoy the activities provided. However, at times, staff do not enable children to try to solve things for themselves when they come across difficulty while playing.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop children's understanding of the world further, particularly in relation to how things change in the natural world
• provide more ways to develop children's problem-solving skills.