The Tot Stop Early Years Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy at this setting. They leave their parents confidently at the gate and talk to staff well. Children are engaged and concentrate on the task in hand. Pre-school children sit patiently and enjoy registration. They join in with familiar songs and find their names confidently. This promotes their communication and literacy skills. Pre-school children excel on apparatus outside. Toddlers climb and balance extremely well on wooden apparatus in their room. Babies explore flour with wonder. They use spoons and brushes to move flour from one spoon to another, demonstrating their good developing physical skills.

Children are independent. Staff encourage them to feed themselves from a young age. As children progress through the nursery, they gain confidence. Toddlers find their own shoes and master putting them on. Pre-school children pour their own drinks and tidy away their plates at snack time. They gain many of the skills which they need for their next stages of learning.

Children's behaviour is good. Pre-school children enjoy using strategies, including sign language, during registration. Staff remind children about the nursery's rules and risks, such as 'wonderful walking' and climbing carefully outside. Pre-school children willingly follow staff's instructions of where to place their feet to aid their climbing. Toddlers try to ride balance bikes and staff offer help and support. This helps children to gain a good understanding of expectations.

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

• Children are excited to join in with activities and wait patiently for staff to give them instructions. For example, pre-school children are keen to paint sunflowers and point to examples nearby of artist's work. Toddlers play with teapots and glasses at the water play. Babies marvel as flour sprinkles from tubs with holes. Children are proud of themselves and celebrate their achievements.
• Pre-school children use mathematical language, such as 'long' and 'small', when looking at worm lengths. Staff introduce a tape measure and encourage children to add spadefuls of earth to their pot with a seed. Toddlers line up in confidence and follow instructions well. However, staff do not always make the best of opportunities for children to count, to extend their understanding of number.
• Stories are read by staff, at children's request. Children become engrossed and remember key phrases well, repeating staff's wording. Pre-school children remember a familiar story. Staff are enthusiastic and join in with children as they play. They help children extend their learning and have a strong focus on supporting them to develop their communication and language development.
• Children develop good relationships with staff. Staff know children exceptionally well. Babies and toddlers snuggle into staff for comfort, pre-school children gain good independence. Toddlers follow familiar routines and demonstrate good listening and attention skills. For example, as they come down the stairs they know to hold onto the handrail and wait for their friends.
• Children begin to take turns, with support. For example, staff encourage toddlers to share. Pre-school children are reminded outside to wait for others to climb apparatus first. Staff have high expectations of what children can do and of their behaviour. This inspires children to try, have a go and behave well.
• The manager has a clear vision for the nursery. Staff state that they feel supported with their well-being and the team hold monthly staff meetings. Staff complete regular training. However, the manager has not yet fully embedded sharply focused supervisions and evaluations of the staff's quality of teaching, to move their practice and knowledge forward and support all children's progress even further.
• Staff communicate with parents well and regularly discuss children's learning and development. Staff provide parents with an online app, which is full of ideas and activities to use at home. This supports children's learning at home and offers consistency in their learning experiences.
• Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are well supported. Staff ensure that children meet their planned targets and make good progress. They work well with other professionals to ensure that all children get the additional support they need. Support plans are shared with parents and children's progress is discussed regularly.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• place more emphasis on developing children's early mathematical concepts, so that their progress in this area of learning is accelerated
• use systems for staff supervision more effectively to evaluate the impact of staff's practice on children's learning and raise the quality of practice to a higher level.