Sunshine Under 5's

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are well settled in the home-from-home nursery. They arrive happily and quickly engage in play and learning. Staff provide an inclusive, nurturing environment for children. They get to know children's whole family to help them understand their individual needs. This helps staff to support children's emotional well-being. Staff recognise the importance of helping children to learn about sharing and turn taking. They plan activities that help children to learn these fundamental skills. Staff model good manners and remind children about friendly behaviours. This encourages children to develop their social skills and learn about what is expected of them.

The nursery provides a broad curriculum that is flexible to support all children's individual needs. Communication and language development is a strength. Staff recognise that this is low attaining in the area and prioritise it. They talk to children a lot, modelling how to hold back-and-forth conversations. Staff sing to children throughout the day. They encourage children to join in with words they remember and model the actions from familiar rhymes. Children chat to themselves and their friends during play and are developing some of the conversational skills they will need for school.

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

• The provider and the team have worked hard since the last inspection to improve their curriculum for children. They consider children's individual needs, what they already know and what they need to learn next. Overall, the curriculum is implemented well, and children make progress. However, staff do not always focus sharply on the curriculum intentions when in the outdoor area. This does not further support those children who prefer to learn outdoors.
• Staff monitor children's development to quickly identify and address any gaps in learning. They use additional screening tools to monitor children's communication and language development. Targeted learning plans are implemented for children who need them and referrals to outside agencies are made swiftly. This helps to ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive the support they need to make progress.
• Staff read to children throughout the day. They encourage them to make comments on the books and point to characters they are familiar with. Children use the lending library to take books home to share with their parents. This promotes children's literacy development and helps them to develop a love and interest of books.
• Children engage well and are motivated to join in with adult-led activities. They show perseverance and determination when learning to play hopscotch. Children take turns and wait patiently for their friends to have their turn. They cheer each other on when they successfully hop through the line of numbers. Children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning and taking part.
• Staff provide small-group activities to help build children's concentration levels. During dough activities, staff adapt their teaching well for children's different stages of development. Children learn to recognise different colours, use a range of tools and strengthen their hand and finger muscles. Staff use the activity to recall songs children are learning, such as 'pat-a-cake', to build their communication and language skills.
• Staff support children to understand about the different things that constitute a healthy lifestyle. Children brush their teeth at the nursery to support their oral health, as tooth decay has been identified as a concern in the local area. They follow good hygiene routines, such as handwashing, before eating and after playing in the garden. This promotes children's overall good health.
• Parents are happy with the quality of care provided. They report that children make good progress from when they first start. Staff provide parents with a termly newsletter which outlines their curriculum for that period. However, parents do not receive information about children's individual next steps and how they can promote these at home. This hinders the continuity in children's learning.
• Staff are passionate about providing children with experiences that they would not typically get. They use additional funding, such as early years pupil premium, to take children on outings to the beach and the local cafe. Children meet new people in the community which helps to develop their social skills and broadens their understanding of the world.
• Since the last inspection the programme of professional development for staff has been improved. The nursery team has worked closely with the Local Authority to access specific training, such as speech and language and SEND training to support the children at the nursery. This helps staff to provide a consistently good quality of education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus outdoor learning more sharply on the curriculum intentions to further support those children who prefer to learn outdoors
• provide parents with more specific information about children's individual next steps to help them extend learning at home.