Sticky Faces

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children learn in this nurturing, welcoming and inclusive environment. The effective key-person system ensures that children settle quickly and form close bonds with staff. This helps children feel safe and secure. There are strong partnerships with parents, enabling them to support their children's learning at home. Staff work effectively as a team to enhance learning opportunities for children. This ensures that all children are making good progress.

Children are happy, behave well and show a positive attitude to their learning. They engage in a range of well-planned activities, which they approach with excitement and curiosity. Staff have high expectations of children. They use daily observations to ensure activities meet the needs of all children, allowing them to become confident and independent learners.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive effective support to allow them to access the curriculum. Children who speak English as an additional language are supported well by staff. Many of the staff team speak children's home languages and can use these to explain activities and help them to understand quickly. Children learn new words and develop their language through listening to stories, singing songs and having conversations with one another. They are becoming effective communicators.

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

• The staff work effectively together to plan and further enhance learning opportunities for children. For example, when children show an interest in riding bikes in the garden, staff use cones to develop opportunities for the children to navigate and negotiate space successfully.
• Children demonstrate a positive attitude and high levels of concentration. They enjoy learning and engage in a range of activities. Staff encourage children's curiosity. During a bug hunt activity, staff introduced magnifying glasses and extended children's investigative and communication and language skills to support them in finding bugs in the garden. Children explored where bugs live and discussed why they like it there. This supports children's language development and their knowledge and understanding of the world.
• Children respond well to nursery routines and have plenty of opportunities for larger group sessions and small focused activity times. However, larger group sessions do not always allow children with additional needs the space that they need to fully access the learning intention.
• Children enjoy the healthy meals and snacks. Staff sit with children while they eat, making this a social experience and providing opportunities for discussions around healthy choices. Children serve themselves and staff model how to use cutlery appropriately. This supports children to be independent. Staff show awareness of sun safety. They discuss the importance of using sun cream and wearing hats with children before they play outside on sunny days. This develops children's knowledge and understanding of how to keep safe.
• Children demonstrate that they are emotionally secure in their environment. Staff support this well through using emotion cards, visual timetables and a specialist sensory room.
• Leaders and managers work closely together to lead the provision. They understand the strengths and weaknesses of the nursery and have a clear vision of how they want to improve. They reflect on practice and ensure that they meet the needs of the staff and children. Staff report good levels of well-being and feel supported by managers and leaders.
• Strong partnerships with parents and external agencies ensure positive learning outcomes for children, in particular those with additional needs. Parents are happy with the communication they receive. This comes through daily contact, parents' meetings and observations communicated electronically. Parents discuss that they are happy and feel fully involved in their children's learning.
• Parents of children with SEND feel extremely supported by this highly skilled team. They discuss the progress their children have made since starting nursery. Staff successfully implement strategies to support children's learning. This ensures that children are prepared for the next stages of learning.
• Children have access to all the areas of learning through well-planned activities indoors and outdoors. They learn a range of different sounds to support their reading. Children enjoy looking at books and listening to stories, which introduces them to new words and extends their vocabulary. The strong focus on the development of children's small- and large-muscle skills supports their next steps in writing.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop further strategies to engage children in larger group sessions to maximise all areas of the nursery effectively.