The Counting House

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly with nurturing staff, who understand their needs. This helps children to feel safe and secure during their time at the nursery. Staff have high expectations for all children. They teach children to be kind to each other and to look after their toys and books. Children share with their friends and take turns. They learn what is expected of them.

Children develop their language and communication skills as staff talk to them as they play. Staff say words such as 'baby', 'head', 'hands' and 'eyes', as babies play. Babies then point to the doll and their body parts and attempt to repeat back some of the words. Staff sing familiar rhymes with children, who enjoy joining in with the actions and words. From an early age, children develop their vocabulary.

Outdoors, children enjoy mixing mud in pans with spoons and drawing big circles with chalk. This helps to strengthen the muscles in their arms and hands. Younger children navigate steps and balancing beams, while staff are safely nearby to help if they need it. Children develop a wide range of physical skills.

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

• Managers consider what they know about children to plan what and how they are going to teach children. They use their assessments well to focus on what they want children to learn next. Managers have identified a focus on developing children's independence and communication skills. This helps children to be well prepared for school.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to think independently and to solve problems. For example, when children build a pretend castle together with construction materials, staff ask open-ended questions so that children can think about what they need next and where. Children use magnets and predict which materials might be magnetic and then test out their predictions. This helps children to develop their critical thinking skills.
• Staff promote the personal development of babies and young children particularly well. They comfort and sing to babies as they change their nappies and feed them. Staff recognise children's needs and respond to them in a sensitive way. Babies develop strong bonds with the staff who care for them.
• Children learn about feelings and how their behaviour impacts on others. Staff talk to children about their feelings. They praise them when they do something good or they try hard. In turn, children praise each other, such as saying, 'Well done' to their friends when working together on a task.
• The key-person system works effectively, ensuring that all staff know their children well. In particular, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are very well supported. Staff provide targeted support in partnership with other agencies where needed. As a result, children with SEND form secure relationships with staff and make good progress in their learning and development.
• Parents speak fondly of the nursery and the staff who care for their children. They say that staff understand their children's needs. Parents appreciate the regular communication that they receive about their children. They comment that this helps them to support their children's learning at home.
• Managers have a good oversight of the quality of education in the nursery. They identify training opportunities for staff to improve and develop their skills. Managers also carry out regular supervision sessions, as well as observations, which help to improve staff's practice. However, performance management arrangements do not yet help all staff to understand the managers' expectations of consistently high-quality education across all age groups of children. This means that the quality of interactions is not consistently high for some children and the understanding of expectations is not yet fully embedded with some staff.
• Managers carefully consider how individual funding for children can be used to best support children's needs. They use funding to provide targeted interventions and support for children and to give them wider experiences that they may otherwise not have.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop existing performance management processes to ensure that staff have a consistent understanding of high-quality education.