The Paddocks Nursery & Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff implement the ambitious curriculum well. They provide a safe, secure, and stimulating environment, where children feel confident to investigate the good range of resources and become independent learners. For example, babies are fascinated as staff demonstrate dropping a shell into a pot and listening to the noise it makes. They then copy, developing their hand-eye coordination, listening and social skills. Toddlers use trial and error to open different locks and older children set up guttering to transport water from one tray to another. Planned activities are often based around children's fascinations, such as dinosaurs, and last as long as the children's interest. This means that children remain excited to learn.

Staff welcome children with an enthusiastic smile and conversation, so children immediately engage with them and are happy to part from their parents and carers. Their excitement to be at the setting is evident. Children are pleased to see their friends and have excellent relationships with each other and the staff. Children are happy and confident in their play and staff delight in their achievements. This underpins children's highly positive attitude to learning and eagerness to keep trying at new skills. Even late in the day they remain motivated and having fun.

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

• The management team ensure staff have an important focus on keeping children safe. All staff have annual child protection training to keep their knowledge up to date. Children gain a good understanding of keeping themselves safe. For example, they learn about road safety on outings and confidently explain they are wearing a helmet, with balance bikes, to stop them bumping their head. Staff provide close supervision for babies, while allowing them to develop new skills, such as learning to walk.
• The new planning enables staff in each room to know the knowledge and skills they want children to have. They focus successfully on what children need to be learning next, before moving to their next stage. This has helped staff to quickly highlight any gaps in children's development and seek additional support. Staff work closely with reception teachers to ensure all children are ready for school, including those with any special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Recently, the manager has led her staff in behaviour management and emotion coaching. Staff have implemented this highly successfully. For example, babies have mirrors and pictures of facial expressions to see themselves, and staff skilfully support toddlers in explaining how they feel. In pre-school they are embedding children's understanding of their emotions, so they are already using excellent vocabulary to express their feelings and resolve conflict for themselves.
• Children are confident communicators. Staff respond well to babies' babbling and narrate what toddlers are doing, adding vocabulary. Staff make effective use of songs, rhymes, and books, to extend children's knowledge and language skills. For example, staff help older children to use books and picture charts to name bugs. Later children use them again to recall the ones they found and excitedly go off in search of the others.
• Staff use the local environment well to extend children's experiences, such as inviting farmers to bring in animals and the local band to play. This supports children's understanding of the world effectively. However, on occasions there are inconsistencies in the quality of teaching in children's free play, to help children understand how one thing can cause an effect on another.
• There is a strong management team, and the manager is a positive role model. All staff benefit from important links with the school and sharing their expertise. The enthusiastic staff work well as a team. They confirm their good development opportunities, and many have worked at the setting a long time and comment on how much they enjoy it.
• The management team have a clear vision for providing the highest quality provision. They continuously review their practice, seeking the views of all their users. For example, they have been improving the teaching for children's mathematical development during their free play and by using singing and rhyme. Parents confirm the effective partnerships staff have with them, which ensures consistent care and learning for all children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff in consistently helping older children to understand about cause and effect, to extend their knowledge and understanding of the world further.