Teapots Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children's emotional well-being is supported well. For instance, if children are unsettled when they arrive, they receive cuddles and reassurance from staff. This results in children settling quickly. Children show positive relationship with staff. They sit close to staff to listen to stories. Children are confident to share their views and thoughts with staff. For example, when children play with ice, they are keen to show staff their hands and explain they are cold.

Older children learn about shapes. For instance, staff talk to children about different shaped sponges they use in painting activities. Children recognise some shapes, such as a star. When they do this, staff praise children for remembering the shape, helping to raise their self-esteem and confidence. Children show excitement and are curious to see what is in a box when staff introduce this to them. Children wait in anticipation for staff to bring out images from a box. This includes showing younger children photos of parts of the body and asking them to identify the same part on themselves. Older children see images of a receipt and learn what this is. For instance, staff explain that you receive a receipt when you pay for something. This helps to broaden children's knowledge and helps them to learn new words.

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

• The management team focus the curriculum on supporting children's communication, language and literacy skills. For example, staff sing the same nursery rhyme and read the same story to children over the period of a week before moving on to different ones. This helps children to revisit and secure their learning.
• Children remember favourite stories. For example, staff provide toys that reflect images in story books. When children play with these, staff ask them what happens in the story. Children remember that a mouse meets an owl, recalling from memory.
• Staff share information with parents about children's care routines, activities children enjoy and next steps in learning. They support parents to continue their children's learning at home, such as to sing the same nursery rhymes children learn in the nursery and with their toileting needs.
• Children have opportunities to be independent and learn how to manage their own needs. For example, when children play outdoors and they have dirty hands, staff provide younger children with hand-over-hand support to show them how to rub them together. Older children do this by themselves.
• Staff help children to understand how to show positive behaviours. For example, when younger children throw crayons on the floor, staff ask children to use the crayons to make marks on paper. When children begin to draw on large paper, staff ask them to share this with their peers. Children listen and follow instructions.
• Children are keen to join activities staff plan for them. However, occasionally, staff's interactions with younger children during these activities do not fully support the learning intention. For example, when staff provide younger children with tools to help develop the muscles in their hands, they do not show children how to use them properly.
• The management team reflect on the experiences they offer children. Recent changes include providing children with a separate area for messy play activities. This allows children to play with, for example, cereal and ice to help develop their sensory skills and imagination. For instance, staff show children how to hold up cereal and let it drop through their fingers. Children copy and agree with staff when they say it looks like rain.
• Staff offer children a range of nutritious snacks and meals to promote a healthy diet. However, staff do not fully support children to embed their understanding of how healthy practices impact on their bodies, such as healthy eating and oral health.
• Children learn how they can keep themselves safe when they are near roads. For instance, staff talk to children about road safety when they take them for walks in the community. Children play games with staff outdoors, to help them understand what cars do when they see different colours on traffic lights.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop their interactions with children during activities to fully implement the planned learning intention for younger children
• help children to embed their knowledge of healthy practices and the impact this can have on their bodies.