TH Day Care Ltd t/a Shooting Stars Pre School Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are eager to enter the busy nursery. The caring, friendly staff help them to feel safe and ready to play. Staff understand how young children learn. Two-year-old children become engrossed in exploring a collection of little socks. They carefully put the socks onto dolls' feet. This helps children's small-muscle development. Children find socks that match. This encourages them to look closely at shapes, colours and patterns. Pre-school children ably apply their knowledge that colours and written words have meaning. When staff hold up familiar cards, children have great fun playing percussion instruments 'fast' or 'slow'. This promotes children's early literacy well.

The atmosphere in the nursery is lively and purposeful. Children's deep involvement in self-chosen activities, supported by knowledgeable staff, promotes their positive behaviour and learning. Parents and carers say that children develop self-help skills at the nursery. For example, the parents of two-year-old children are pleased and surprised when children put their own jacket away. Parents' praise promotes children's confidence and self-esteem. It makes children eager to learn more skills. Support for children who speak English as an additional language is a strength of the nursery. Staff create lots of interesting reasons for children to listen and communicate.

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

• Managers and staff have continued to worked hard to improve the quality of provision at the nursery. Their commitment and ambition are unmistakeable. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress.
• The team completed training that helps them to assess and support children's speech and language development. They have incorporated their new knowledge into the curriculum. Staff teach two-year-old children to use prepositions correctly, while they play exciting ball games. They share children's speech and language targets with parents. This enables parents to continue the learning at home.
• Managers observe staff and provide feedback that helps them to improve. For example, managers encourage staff to give children thinking time when they ask children questions. However, sometimes, staff do not remember to do this. This means that, at times, the quality of staff's interactions with children is inconsistent.
• Children learn and use new words. Pre-school children learn words such as 'nervous' to describe their emotions. This helps them to talk about and make sense of their feelings. Two-year-old children learn a new song about crabs and seashells. Singing the song helps children to remember new vocabulary and to consolidate their knowledge about the seaside.
• Staff take children on regular visits to the shops. Children learn to walk sensibly along the footpath. This promotes their safety. Staff talk with children about what they will buy. This stimulates purposeful conversation. Children learn how to shop. This helps to promote their independence. Children's effort is rewarded when they prepare and eat the strawberries that they went to buy.
• Staff teach children meaningful rules and routines. At group time, pre-school children arrive ready to use their 'listening ears'. However, on occasion, the teaching at group time loses pace and direction. Some children leave before it has ended. This does not help them to develop the self-regulation that promotes consistently positive attitudes to education.
• Children learn about oral health. Staff share interesting books with them about visiting the dentist and tell them why regular brushing is important. This helps children to develop habits that promote their health and well-being.
• Staff notice and minimise risks to children's health and safety in the nursery. Children learn to go safely up the steps and down the slide when they play on the climbing frame. This helps to avoid injuries from collisions. Managers check the reasons for injuries and accidents and act on the information that they gather. Following a recent review, managers put foam edging on the corners of walls in the baby room, so that babies can toddle more safely.
• The provider has not notified Ofsted about a new director. Although this is a breach of legal requirements, there is no impact on children's welfare.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to focus even more closely on the detail of their interactions with children, so that these are consistent across the team and children make the swiftest possible progress in their learning
• review routines in the pre-school room, so that teaching helps all children to participate and develop really positive attitudes to learning.