Strawberry Fields Nursery and Preschool Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff create a warm and welcoming environment for children. They provide a range of activities that spark children's interests. As a result, children are quickly absorbed in their play and learning. This helps them develop positive attitudes to learning. Staff place a strong emphasis on helping children gain their independence. For example, they encourage babies to feed themselves, and older children see to their personal care needs. Consequently, children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning.

Staff support children to understand their own feelings and emotions. This builds children's confidence and helps them to feel a sense of pride in their achievements. Effective support is provided to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff work in partnership with parents and professionals. For example, staff have introduced British Sign Language into the curriculum. This has been beneficial in helping children to communicate their thoughts, wishes and feelings. This in turn reduces children's anxiety as they eagerly participate in activities.

Staff teach children how to share and take turns. Consequently, children behave well and are kind and considerate to their peers. For example, children make sure that everyone has a turn when mixing the ingredients for the biscuits. Staff are ambitious for children and want them to succeed. They know when to step in to provide additional support. For example, staff help children to alter the ramps so that the cars roll down them faster. Children cheer in delight when they achieve their goal.

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

• Since the previous inspection, there has been a change of manager. The manager and staff work well as a team. The manager shows commitment to improving the quality of education for children. For example, she has reorganised the learning environment to make each area more accessible and appealing to children.
• The quality of education is strong, which helps children to make progress. However, there are some gaps in less-experienced staff's knowledge of how to consistently teach the curriculum. For example, some staff are not as confident in guiding children's learning. This does not help children to become fully absorbed in their play and learning.
• In the main, staff training enhances their knowledge and skills. However, new staff are not as confident in teaching some aspects of the curriculum because they have not had time to embed the knowledge from training. For example, staff have received recent training on communication and language. However, they do not consistently help children to learn new vocabulary in different contexts. This does not fully support children's communication and language development. The management team is taking steps to address these minor gaps.
• Where practice is strong, staff are confident communicators who engage children in conversations. They introduce words such as 'squish' and 'squeeze' as children make rabbit biscuits. Babies smile in delight as staff repeat 'pop' as they blow bubbles. These activities help children to hear and learn new words.
• Toddlers enjoy the opportunities to re-enact the story about a hungry caterpillar. Staff use props that entice the toddlers to join in. As a result, they eagerly join in with familiar phrases, such as 'yum, yum, yum'. Older children know that some books, such as recipe books, can be used to gather information. They also sit in the comfy book areas reading for pleasure. Books are a prominent feature of the nursery. This has a positive impact on children's early literacy.
• The curriculum for mathematics is sequenced well. Staff use songs and rhymes to introduce children to numbers and counting. As children progress through the nursery, they learn shape names, such as a circle, cone and cuboid. Children also use mathematical language as they play. This helps to build children's mathematical skills, which provides a firm foundation for future learning.
• Staff provide many opportunities for children to develop their physical skills. Children delight in moulding dough and competently use a variety of tools. They transport the chicks, rice and carrots around the plastic tray with tweezers. This helps children to develop the coordination and muscles they need for early writing.
• The new manager has placed a great emphasis on developing effective partnerships with parents. Parents say that communication has improved and they are much more aware of what their children are doing and learning in nursery. This means that parents are able to continue to support their children's development at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's knowledge and confidence in developing children's communication and language skills
• support staff to receive focused highly effective development opportunities to help them build on the quality of education throughout the nursery.