Sunflowers at St Peter's

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are eager to explore and play in the garden. They happily play with their friends in the fresh air, practising their physical skills and developing their hand-to-eye coordination. For example, children climb up ladders, navigate spaces in pedal cars, throw hoops onto poles and scoop spadefuls of gravel into containers. Children giggle as they pretend to make a car wash, using soapy water and brushes to clean the cars. They reach across, bend down low and stand on tiptoes to give the car a good scrub. They persevere in what they are doing, working together to complete the task. Children are confident in their own abilities and when sharing their ideas.

Children make secure attachments with staff, who support their emotional well-being very well. Children confidently skip in, find their friends and begin to play. Younger children reach out their arms and snuggle into staff, waving goodbye to parents as they leave. Children enjoy their time at the setting and display a sense of belonging. Staff engage children in genuine two-way conversations, demonstrating their interest in what children have to say. This in turn ensures that children feel valued and share their experiences openly. Children benefit from a broad and balanced curriculum and make good progress across all areas of learning.

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

• Children behave well. They are kind to one another. For example, a child dressed as a pirate explains to the inspector, 'I'm a good pirate; I help friends when they need it.' However, when minor conflicts arise, staff are not always consistent in how they support children to fully understand how their behaviour may impact on others.
• The experienced manager is passionate about providing good-quality care and education for the children. She ensures a purposeful curriculum that focuses on children's confidence in their own abilities. From this, she then builds on what children can do and identifies what they need to learn next. Children make good progress and are well prepared for their next stage of learning.
• Staff are sensitive when supporting children's care needs. For example, staff ask younger children if they can change their nappy. Children develop a good understanding of healthy practices. Staff remind them to wash their hands. They explain the importance of having clean hands before handling food and eating. Children become increasingly independent in managing their self-care. For example, they can find their own peg, hang up their bag and tidy away at mealtimes.
• Staff receive feedback on the quality of their teaching through discussion with the manager. However, staff are not always clear on how to develop the quality of their interactions and identify when to extend learning, particularly for the most-able children. As a result, some children are not as challenged in their learning as they could be.
• Staff gather useful information from parents when children start. The manager is very responsive to children's different starting points. For example, they offer home visits to children who need additional time to settle. Parents share that staff offer tips and activities that they can replicate at home. Parents are highly complimentary about the staff and manager.
• Staff support younger children with emerging language well. They model words clearly and repeat what children say. Staff and children sing songs together during play. For example, they pretend to have a party and sing 'Happy Birthday'. Children listen carefully to staff during a story and offer comments on what they see and hear.
• Children learn about their community and visit their neighbours. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, staff and children posted well-being cards through the letterboxes in their street. The manager has continued to do this to develop children's understanding about helping others. Children learn about the world around them through the celebration of cultural festivals and events.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop a consistent approach to behaviour management to help children begin to learn how to manage their own behaviour and understand that their actions can impact on others
• support staff to identify and make the most of opportunities to further extend learning for the most-able children.