The Learning Cottage

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery is bright and spacious, and children arrive happy and eager to learn. Key persons recognise children's needs and are warm and welcoming. Children quickly feel safe and secure. They separate easily from their parents and eagerly join in with a wide range of stimulating activities provided. They are inquisitive, confident and independent learners. Children display a keen interest in their play and learn to make decisions about what they want to do. For example, younger children enjoy investigating what happens as they add oats to water when pouring along tubes in the garden. Children enjoy a good range of activities that staff plan through an ambitious curriculum based on children's interests and learning needs. Staff know children very well and have high expectations for all children.

Children form positive relationships with staff and their peers. They behave well. Staff encourage young children to share, take turns and be kind to one another. Pre-school children recall the rules and boundaries, and many know exactly what is expected of them. All staff are positive role models. Children are supported well. This includes children who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff work well with parents and other agencies to improve children's development and help them make good progress in their learning.

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

• The manager and staff provide an ambitious curriculum for all children, including those with SEND. Additional funding is used to support all children with SEND to access the learning. For example, staff adapt the role play area for children to better suit their needs and support them to invite peers to play with them. This supports all children to make good progress in their learning.
• There is a strong focus on developing speech and language at the nursery. Children who speak English as an additional language make good progress with their communication skills. Staff have additional training to help the youngest children quickly learn new words. For example, they introduce new vocabulary to babies as they comment on their play at a water activity.
• Staff provide a broad range of experiences that excite children and promote communication and listening skills. For example, toddlers enthusiastically join activities to support listening skills as they copy different sounds made using shakers. However, overall, staff do not consistently support children to learn words to describe what they feel and see during play. This impacts on children's language development.
• Children enjoy exploring books. Older children recall previous stories they have read and talk about their favourite characters. Older children happily select books independently to look at. Staff encourage children to borrow story books from nursery, particularly those who speak English as an additional language, so they hear stories in their home language read at home.
• Staff encourage children to learn about similarities and differences and embrace each other. For example, parents are invited into the nursery to share their cultures and celebrations. Children recently enjoyed a visit to the temple during the celebration of Eid. This helps all children to have a strong sense of belonging.
• The manager encourages her staff to reflect on their practice. She regularly evaluates the setting, and the staff work together to make changes and improvements. This is done through regular supervisions and meetings. The manager implements a strong training plan for staff to develop their practice. Staff comment that recent training about positive interactions with children has improved children's listening skills. However, at times, staff are not always deployed in the most effective way to support children's learning during their chosen play.
• Partnerships with parents are particularly strong. The manager and staff pride themselves in creating an exciting and welcoming environment for children. This is reflected in the positive comments from the parents about the friendliness of the staff and the welcoming environment. All the staff across the nursery get to know all the children. This helps children and their parents to feel a real sense of belonging, right from the start.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to extend children's vocabulary during focus activities and child-initiated play, to enhance their language skills
• improve the deployment of staff to support children's learning experiences even further.