Sunnyside Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily and settle quickly. Staff greet children warmly and invite them into the activities. This helps children feel safe and secure. Staff have high expectations for children. Children behave very well, and they understand the rules and boundaries. They learn to take turns with one another, with adult support, and talk about the use of 'kind hands'. Staff also use a reward system, for example stickers to encourage children at times, such as during potty training. Children learn about their feelings and emotions through a variety of activities. They learn to recognise facial expressions of different emotions and attempt to pull happy and sad faces. This enhances their personal, social and emotional development well.

Children learn to be independent in the nursery. They are encouraged to put on their own coats before going out to play and they make choices about the activities that they wish to take part in. This boosts their self-esteem and confidence. Children develop their small-muscle movements as they manipulate the play dough. They explore textures as they play with the shaving foam and observe what happens to paint as different colours are mixed. Children use different implements to make marks in the shaving foam, such as their fingers and brushes, as part of developing their early writing skills. Children make good progress from their starting points.

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

• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. For example, they repeat words back to children so that they hear the correct pronunciation. Staff also encourage children to talk about what they have done over the weekend. This helps children to learn about conversation and how to pause and give others time to respond. Children also enjoy singing their favourite songs and listening to stories, which further enhances their speaking skills.
• Staff observe and assess children's development effectively. They use children's next steps in development and their interests to plan the curriculum. However, occasionally, activities and what children are expected to learn are too challenging for younger children. For example, the sounds of letters of the alphabet are being taught before children can pronounce words correctly or speak fluently. As a result, children lose interest and the expected learning outcomes are not achieved.
• Staff provide a good range of age-appropriate resources for children. Many of these are accessible at child height, which promotes choice and independence. However, creative activities are stored on high shelving that children cannot reach. This means that children cannot use arts and crafts freely to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas.
• Children learn about the benefits of a safe and healthy lifestyle. For example, they learn about food that is good for them as they talk about how vegetables make them strong. They also learn how to be safe on outings and begin to understand about road safety.
• Children have good opportunities to exercise outdoors in the fresh air. However, the curriculum does not contain enough activities, such as climbing and balancing, to help develop children's large-muscle skills effectively.
• The manager supports staff well and works closely with them. She observes their practice, holds regular supervision meetings and offers further training to build on their skills. Knowledge gained is put into practice in the nursery to benefit the learning outcomes for the children.
• The manager takes responsibility for the quality of education and knows what children are expected to learn. Along with her staff, she reviews the quality of education and the progress that children make. Any gaps in learning that are identified are quickly addressed through staff training or the purchase of resources to help children reach their full potential.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff share information regularly with parents about children's development and daily routine through diary sheets, discussions and electronic means. Parents are given good information on how to carry on their children's learning at home, to ensure continuity of care and development. For example, parents access activity packs and books that they can borrow to use with their children at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen opportunities for children to be creative and express their thoughts and ideas
• build on the curriculum and make sure that activities are based on what children already know and can do and are not too challenging for them, with a particular regard to the teaching of literacy
• look at ways of further developing children's physical skills, in particular their large physical movements such as climbing and balancing.