Step Start Nurseries Heybridge

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are really keen and active little learners. They enter the nursery excited about their day ahead. Babies stretch their arms out to be held by their key persons, showing that they feel safe, secure and settled. Children wave goodbye to parents and carers and happily go with the key person to their base rooms. Staff create a welcoming and exciting environment. They make really good use of the resources and furniture to provide well-planned spaces that capture children's interests. Children are kind, caring and polite towards each other. They form small friendship groups and invite other children to join their games.

Children behave well. Staff use extremely positive, clear language to help children to express their feelings and engage in purposeful conversations. Their expectations of the children are high. Staff are skilled at asking pertinent questions and allowing children time to consider their responses. As a result, children's communication and language are promoted effectively. Babies receive warm and loving care from their key person and all staff working in the baby room. Their individual needs are expertly met to ensure that babies settle well and enjoy their nursery experience.

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

• There is an effective management team at the head of this nursery. The manager is well supported by an area manager. She in turn supports her staff superbly, creating a caring and highly effective team of childcare practitioners. Staff speak about really enjoying their job and feeling valued.
• Parents speak very highly of the manager and staff. They comment on the effective communication between staff and parents and how well informed they are about their child's day. The senior management team listens to parents and works hard to resolve any concerns. It takes on board parental and staff suggestions. For example, opportunities for parents to visit the nursery to speak to their child's key person are organised during the day on a Saturday as a number of parents found the evening meetings difficult to attend.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress in their learning. There are effective measures in place for staff to work with other professionals to support these children. Money from additional funding is used well to support children and to help close gaps in their progress and development.
• Children are excited to participate in planned and clearly enjoyable phonics sessions. They sound out letters to spell simple words and enthusiastically join in with songs and rhymes relating to sounds.
• Older children enjoy being able to free flow between the base room and the outdoor area. Staff make good use of the garden to extend the children's spontaneous and planned learning. Children invite adults to purchase ice cream from their ice-cream shop. When a mint ice cream is asked for, they confidently tell staff that they 'have made a good choice'.
• Managers are highly effective at monitoring staff practice and knowledge. Where identified, appropriate training is swiftly put in place to support any staff who need it.
• Children enthusiastically free the toy dinosaurs from the frozen ice they have been caught in. They use appropriate tools proficiently to hack away at the ice and chat to staff about the names of the dinosaurs and how they are freeing them. Staff interactions are highly effective at enhancing and extending such conversations.
• Staff are very knowledgeable about children's dietary and medical needs. Well-presented, clear care plans are in each of the rooms, ensuring that all staff, including bank or cover staff, have access to important information about the children's diets or medical conditions.
• Children have opportunities to experience fresh air and outdoor learning daily when they visit the nursery garden. There is, however, less provision for children's knowledge of the wider community to be enhanced. Managers and staff do not make effective use of the local environment to extend children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and enhance the provision for extending children's understanding of the world, especially their knowledge of the local and wider communities.