Tam's House

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish at Tam's House. Their day begins with a warm welcome from the nurturing and dedicated staff, who meet them at the door and settle them into their rooms. Staff use their exceptional knowledge of children's individual needs and interests to carefully tailor their care and learning experiences. This helps children to feel safe and secure.

The manager and staff are ambitious for all children. They provide a highly effective curriculum and teach children in a carefully sequenced way. For example, staff know that children benefit from managing their own personal care. As children move through the nursery, staff help them to learn and build on these skills. Children of all ages are exceptionally independent. For instance, babies observe the toddlers putting on their shoes and coats before outdoor play and are extremely keen to have a go themselves.

The manager and staff have extremely high expectations for all children. They help them to grow into self-assured individuals who love to learn. For instance, staff use playful ways to support children's early language and literacy skills, such as making up humorous verses to their favourite songs. Children are relaxed and giggle together as they explore the sounds of words and create simple rhymes. Children show impeccable behaviour. They have excellent manners and treat the environment and others with care and respect. For instance, older children help each other to tidy up and place their waste paper in a recycling bin after a cutting activity.

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

• Staff establish strong partnerships with parents right from the start to promote children's individual needs and interests. They evaluate children's development precisely and quickly identify if they need extra help. The manager and staff are well trained to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They liaise closely with other professionals and implement highly focused plans to ensure that no child gets left behind in their learning.
• Staff skilfully and consistently use children's interests to foster their enthusiasm for learning. For example, they incorporate children's fascination with dinosaurs into exciting and challenging activities. Children eagerly take part in lively discussions about why dinosaurs became extinct. They become confident in using new vocabulary, such as 'volcano' and 'meteorite'. Children readily practise their mark-making and cutting skills to create pictures of dinosaurs for a bowling game. They have enormous fun as they roll a 'meteorite' to knock down and make 'extinct' as many dinosaurs as they can.
• Children learn to celebrate what makes them unique and this contributes greatly to their sense of inclusion and belonging. For example, babies happily point to their parents on a display of family photos, and older children confidently share their home languages at registration time. Children also benefit from a wealth of experiences outside of the setting. This helps them to feel part of the wider community and to learn about the lives of others. For instance, staff and children visit the nearby library, park and shops. They raise funds for local charities, such as a foodbank.
• The manager invests in regular coaching and training opportunities for all staff to continually strengthen the excellent teaching across the setting. This has a positive impact on children's overall development. For instance, staff incorporate visual aids as they communicate with children. This supports all children, including children with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language, to quickly learn the routines and expectations. Staff comment on how this significantly enhances children's well-being and behaviour.
• Parents thoroughly recommend the setting and comment on the attentive and caring staff. They are delighted with the highly personalised approach to each child's care and education. Parents say they are encouraged to share information about family life, contribute to topics and attend special events. They feel well informed and included in their children's learning.
• Children display exceedingly high levels of confidence in their interactions and during their play. For example, children were keen to show the inspector around their garden. They were excited to talk about the spring flowers they have planted and to demonstrate the activities that they most enjoy.