The Mulberry Bush Hedge End

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Babies and toddlers at this setting receive a strong start to their education. They are supported to become fully independent through daily care routines and flourish in the care of nurturing staff that know the children well. For example, babies are encouraged to rub in their own sun cream, and staff make this task fun. They continuously introduce new vocabulary, such as 'rub' and 'cold', while labelling key features of the children's bodies like their legs, arms and face. This helps develop the children's sense of self and make links in their learning as they talk about keeping safe in the sun and recall events such as recent family holidays.

Toddlers practise their ability to use cutlery with more precision and develop the hand-eye coordination required in preparation for early writing, by exploring art and crafting with a range of tools to develop their fine motor skills. These children relish the responsibility of helping at tidy-up time and are given lots of praise and encouragement by staff. This helps support their sense of achievement and encourages their sustained involvement in the task. Very young children demonstrate compassion towards their friends. For instance, they show concern when they are upset or cough, offering them water and cuddles.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive tailored support from passionate and experienced staff, who hold detailed knowledge of each child and the network of professionals around them. This ensures that all children make good progress and those with gaps in their learning and development are supported to reach their full potential.

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

• Following weakness in the setting's arrangements for managing children's dietary requirements, previous breaches to the safeguarding and welfare requirements were identified, which the provider had not notified Ofsted about. However, the provider has identified these and taken steps to ensure that they are now meeting the requirements. All staff are clear and consistently implement the robust measures now in place for the safe handling of children's health and dietary requirements.
• The new providers are committed to delivering high-quality care and education and continue to make further improvements to the setting to ensure children and staff benefit from enabling environments. Experienced and qualified staff make the most of every opportunity to teach children. For example, during ongoing building works, pre-school children are asked to consider how they can make modifications to their group activity to stay safe indoors. This helps children learn to begin to assess risk and identify control measures, which builds their overall understanding of personal and social awareness and safety.
• All children enjoy spending time outside each day, where staff extend children's learning through play, following their interests and continuing the learning that children have been enjoying indoors. For example, children that are focusing on learning their colours and have fun building with coloured blocks outside. Staff give simple instruction around specific coloured blocks to help children recall this information repeatedly so staff are assured that knowledge is securely understood and remembered. This provides children with further opportunities to practise newly learned skills and use new language in their play.
• Staff prioritise children's personal, social and emotional development. Staff know their key children well, particularly in the younger ages. They are sensitive to babies needs and alert to their cues. They recognise when they are tired and allow them to rest when needed. This supports young infant's feelings of safety and security. Older children are taught that their opinion matters. For example, pre-school children vote for which story they want to hear by either placing a hand on their head or on their knees. This helps staff identify and encourage active listening and attention and promotes children's understanding of democracy and all-round well-being.
• At times, children's behaviour is commendable, especially when being managed in a group situation by more qualified and experienced members of staff. However, older children are not supported to manage their behaviour at other times during their play, and this can impact others. Children run around the large pre-school room and outside and throw resources. This is not consistently responded to and does not fully support children to understand what is expected of them.
• Leaders have a sound understanding of the setting's strengths and where to focus their support. There are effective systems in place to identify staff training and development needs, including safe recruitment practices and robust induction procedures. Consequently, staff say that they feel well supported by leaders and managers, who provide staff with the information and skills required to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to understand the setting's behaviour management strategies and consistently implement these across the setting.