The Friendly Fish Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly in the nursery, where there is a clear community atmosphere. The kind and caring staff team makes good use of local amenities to enhance children's experiences. For example, they visit the beach and have discussions with the lifeguard and also go fruit picking, taking their harvest back to the nursery to bake with the chef. Children also learn about caring for their environment, such as through litter picking. Children share their opinions and views. For example, older children attend the pre-school council meeting where they help to decide on new equipment and resources.

Children thoroughly enjoy being in the garden. They mix with children from the other age groups, enabling siblings to play together. Children show great skill in balancing on the beams and confidently ask for help. Toddlers delight in exploring the sand in the 'sandy shed', understanding that their pot containing the sand is 'heavy'. Babies become animated during singing sessions and show that they have learned the actions. For example, they readily point to the parts of their body when singing 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. Pre-school children conduct experiments and notice the changes to resources. For example, they observe what happens when they add dried herbs to the yellow play dough. They recognise that the herbs turned the dough green.

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

• Leaders have overhauled the planning for the curriculum since the last inspection. They worked hard to identify aspects for improvement and devised an effective system that works for the staffing team. The process now in place enables staff to make the best use of what they know about each child's development and interests. In turn, this helps children to feel safe, have fun and thrive at the nursery.
• Staff seek information from parents about what children know, understand and can do. They request details about children's home lives, cultures and heritages. This enables staff to plan activities and experiences for all children to embrace and celebrate differences and similarities.
• Leaders create an effective working environment where staff morale is good and there is a clear team ethos. Leaders evaluate and recognise staff's individual qualities effectively and use individual meetings to plan training needs. This helps to strengthen staff's knowledge. However, staff do not always consider that a part of the sequence of learning, for some children, may not have been embedded. This does not further enhance children's independence skills.
• Staff have a clear understanding of what each child needs to learn next, and they use this during their interactions with them. They recognise appropriate levels of challenge for each child and plan this into the activities and experiences they offer. This helps each child to make the progress that they are capable of.
• Staff encourage children to develop a love of books from a young age. Children learn to turn the pages of the book. Babies babble, telling the story to staff who respond effectively to support their understanding of the flow of a conversation. However, staff do not always make sure that children learning to communicate can see their faces to enhance their understanding of muscle movements.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff are fully respectful of parents' wishes and provide them with information. This enables them to play a full part in their child's care and education. Parents comment about the good levels of communication from the staff team. They report that they can see the impact of changes on the learning outcomes for their children.
• Staff show children respect from the start. They seek children's permission to change their clothing and wait until they give this. Staff support children to develop good social skills and awareness of others. Children help to make things for their friends and work together to keep their environment tidy.
• There is good provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff work with parents and professionals to ensure the earliest identification of gaps in children's development. This approach enables staff to secure equipment and resources to support individual children's needs. Leaders use additional funding to good effect to help swiftly close gaps in learning.
• Staff plan the environment effectively to support children to practise their new-found skills. For example, staff make sure that they position equipment to allow babies to pull themselves up to standing and begin to take their first steps. This supports their physical development.
• Staff support children to learn about taking turns with great calmness. With support, toddlers ask their friends if they can have a turn next. After a short time thinking, they then offer over the item. This helps children to learn the tricky skill of sharing.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on the sequence of learning to enhance children's independence skills even further
• strengthen staff's awareness of the importance of young children's ability to view staff's facial movements to enhance their early communication skills.