Storybook Sunningdale

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are lovingly greeted by staff, who are sincerely happy to see them. This helps the children feel welcome, and they quickly focus on their chosen activity. Staff are considerate, and they offer gentle encouragement for the youngest children who are new and find the initial separation from parents challenging. This supports their personal, social and emotional development well, and they feel safe and secure in their environment. Relationships among children and staff are respectful. Staff encourage children to play amicably together. As a result, children display positive behaviour towards each other.

Children benefit from a broad and interesting range of activities that is planned effectively to promote their learning well. For example, while playing outside, staff support children to wait their turn as they line up to go on a slide. The staff promote children's role play well by discussing with them the make-believe crocodile that is waiting for them in the water at the bottom of the slide. Staff join in with children's role play and tell them that they must avoid the crocodile and move quickly as they line back up to wait their turn. Children are excited, and they laugh and rush to get back to the safety of the line with their friends. The staff ask the children if they can see any other animals in the water. They pretend that they see a hippopotamus and a fish. The staff encourage children to be expressive and creative in their imaginative play.

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

• Managers and leaders are diligent and have worked tirelessly to establish a strong team to support the children and their families. New staff receive the coaching and support they need when they start. For instance, they benefit from robust inductions, probation periods and supervision sessions. These ensure that they swiftly develop their understanding of their roles and responsibilities, which enhances the care of the children. Managers and leaders are focused on staff retention and place emphasis on ensuring that staff feel welcome and consider their well-being. This develops a culture of respect and promotes health and security for children.
• Overall, the curriculum intent is appropriate and focuses on what the children need to further develop in their learning. Managers have a clear understanding of what they want they want children to learn. However, there have been significant changes within the staff team, and some staff do not have a fully confident knowledge of the curriculum intent. This leads to a slight inconsistency in the support that the children receive. Despite this, all staff know children well and support them to make steady progress.
• There are effective arrangements to help children develop their communication and language and literacy skills. For example, staff encourage children to develop a love of books by regularly reading stories to them. Their tone of voice, body language and enthusiasm as they read keeps children engrossed in the story. Staff ask the children considered questions that provoke their imaginations and thinking. They give children time to reflect and make connections between their thoughts.
• Staff manage the children's behaviour effectively by talking to them at their level, being clear and reinforcing expected behaviours. Children follow the appropriate rules and boundaries that are set, and they understand the routine well. They sit well at mealtimes and enjoy nutritious, well-balanced and healthy meals. Staff support children when they eat, and children enjoy this social time. However, staff are sometimes too quick to step in to complete tasks for older children that they are capable of managing themselves, such as feeding them and wiping their hands and faces. This is not in line with the curriculum aim to promote children's independence.
• Effective partnership working with parents is extremely important to the management team and staff. Managers are open and transparent with parents to establish professional relationships and strong communication. They continually seek the parents' views and opinions to help them maintain positive relationships and improvements. Parents share examples of the actions taken by managers and staff that have improved the care and learning that their children receive. They appreciate the value that is placed on working with parents and carers to collaboratively support their children's care and early education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide further support, coaching and training for staff to fully embed their understanding of the intended curriculum
• enhance the support for children to develop their independence.