The Railway Children Upminster

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This setting is a calm and happy place. Children show that they feel safe as they separate from their parents with ease and eagerly engage in the environment. Staff meet children at the door with a warm welcome. Children's independence is highly promoted from the start as they are encouraged to hang up their own coats and bags. Children have a buffet-style breakfast where they can help themselves and are encouraged to self-serve and pour their own water. This allows children to develop independence and learn to follow routines.

Staff set up stimulating environments and initiate conversation with children, promoting early language. For example, staff use their imagination while joining in with children's role play, opening conversations with children about toilet training or their experiences with babies. Children have good relationships with staff. For example, younger babies enjoy a cuddle for reassurance with a familiar adult. This means that, when they are ready, children can explore their environment confidently and receive good support to help them to regulate their emotions. Older children develop into good role models for younger children, such as when eating their lunch with them.

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

• Leaders continuously strive for improvement of the setting. They have recently embraced the 'Hygge' approach by making some changes to their environment to promote a calm and nurturing atmosphere, supported by staff. For example, they realised the lighting of the setting was very bright and changed to fairy lights for a calmer effect. They embrace a home-from-home feeling with neutral colours and resources.
• Leaders work closely with staff, meeting regularly and giving constructive feedback. Staff say that they feel supported, and many of them have taken on training to improve their knowledge of child development. Staff are able to speak about how they have implemented recent training, such as 'emotions and feelings' training. They have introduced resources such as 'emotion beanbags' to support children in their learning.
• Staff are good role models to children. They engage in play alongside them and initiate meaningful conversations. For example, staff engage in sports lessons alongside the children, encouraging participation with great enthusiasm. Staff are knowledgeable about their environment and the activities they have set up. The quality of education is good. However, some staff are slightly less confident in accessing and developing children's individual learning needs to plan effectively.
• Parents speak highly of the setting and many families have had older siblings attend. They say their children really enjoy attending. Parents spoke to the inspector about the great relationship their children have with their key person and how helpful leaders are. Parents receive feedback about their child in everyday activities and their overall development. Parents appreciate the outings the staff take their children on. They described how much their children have gained from experiences such as visiting a local fire station.
• Leaders and staff plan different outings, extra-curricular activities and trips for all children. They ensure that all children have access to outings. However, some staff are not fully confident in implementing everyday routines and activities to ensure that all children's needs are met and well cared for, to further encourage positive outcomes for children.
• Children are learning about healthy lifestyles. They enjoy freshly prepared meals that cater for individual needs. Children are currently planting seeds to grow their own produce for the catering team. Children assess their own risks when using a range of tools to cut with. They learn about different fruit and vegetables and then pretend to feed their dolls.
• Children are exposed to rich language opportunities. For example, staff question children to engage them in conversation. Staff caring for younger babies are constantly singing songs to focus children's learning and develop their language skills. During a story time, staff use great passion and emphasis extending children's vocabulary and engaging them in the story. This builds on children's love of learning through books, and they often bring the staff books so that they can read to them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to understand how to access children's progress and identify next steps in learning to help them plan effectively to meet children's individual needs in order for them to make better progress
• strengthen opportunities for developing staff's confidence in implementing everyday routines and activities to continue to ensure that children's needs are met and well cared for.