The Laurels Child Care

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are incredibly happy, safe and secure at this extremely welcoming and friendly nursery. They arrive eager to explore and learn. Staff plan exceptional opportunities to help all children make excellent progress in their learning. Babies thrive in a calm, stimulating environment, where their individual needs are met precisely. They have incredible fun while enjoying sensory experiences. Children giggle with delight as they run cars and trains through flour and cocoa powder. Staff expertly point out the marks they make. Children's behaviour is impeccable. They are extremely polite, show kindness and are respectful towards each other. Children help each other, without being prompted. For example, when children need help to balance on blocks, their friends swiftly jump in and hold out their hands to help them balance.

Children love to be outside, whatever the weather. They are curious, motivated and show a very positive attitude to their learning. During the inspection, they became fascinated by the recent snowfall. Staff seized the opportunity to build on their interest to maximise their learning. They froze buckets of water and pumpkins. Staff discussed the change in the weather and how they might break the ice. Children develop superb resilience and strong thinking skills. They showed great delight in using small hammers to try to break the ice. There is superb support for children's physical development. Children regularly access forest school, where they climb trees, jump in puddles and build dens in their 'base camp'. Children learn how to cook by the campfire, relishing making soup and cheese toasties. Children demonstrate that they understand the safety rules. For example, they explain that they need to stay safe around the fire pit.

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

• The leadership team is inspirational. The manager and her team are passionate, dedicated and committed in their drive to continuously improve the setting. The manager has a detailed knowledge of the skills and strengths across the team and considers these carefully when deploying staff. A high emphasis is placed on staff's well-being. Staff benefit from regular meetings to support their practice, and they continuously reflect and disseminate information from their training sessions. Incisive self-evaluation is highly effective.
• Partnerships with parents are exceptional. Parents are very eager to share highly positive feedback about the nursery. They describe staff as 'amazing' and say that they 'truly care' about their children. Parents attend 'Young, wild and three' workshops, where they learn about the benefits of outdoor play. Staff record themselves reading the story of the week and share these online. This inspires parents to support their children's learning at home.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is superb.
• Staff diligently monitor children's progress to identify developmental gaps in their learning. They develop meticulous early support plans and make swift referrals to ensure that children's individual needs are quickly met. The team work closely with a wide range of professionals, such as speech and language therapists and health visitors, to make sure that children make the best possible progress.
• Staff are excellent role models. They encourage children to be respectful, take turns and help others. Staff have high expectations of all the children in their care. This results in very calm and happy children, who are developing positive attitudes to each other and to their learning.
• Staff are inspirational teachers and have exceptional knowledge of child development and the skills children need for future learning. They know their key children exceptionally well. Staff continuously assess what children know and can do, planning precisely for their next steps in learning. Children relish learning about nature and wildlife. They observe the changes in the seasons and watch acorns 'germinate'. Children explain that birds need food during winter, and they make bird feeders out of pumpkin shells, seeds and lard. This leads to children developing an excellent knowledge of the world around them.
• Staff support children to develop superb communication skills. They provide a language-rich environment, where communication is paramount. Staff ask children thought-provoking questions and encourage children to be inquisitive problem solvers. Staff deliver daily intervention programmes, to help develop children's early communication skills. Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff gather significant words in children's home languages to further support children's communication skills.