The Woodlands

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show positive relationships with staff. When children become upset or unsure when there are visitors in the room, staff provide them with comfort to support their emotional well-being. This helps children to feel safe. Children know the routine that is embedded by staff. For example, in the baby room, children are quick to get their shoes when it is time to play outdoors. In the toddler room, when children sit down for lunch and staff ask what they need, children say 'a plate'.

Children in the pre-school room are excited to act out favourite stories, supporting their literacy skills. They wait in anticipation, as they balance on a broom, for staff to begin to read a story about a witch. When staff ask them to work together to find objects to represent characters in a book, children quickly work as a team and collect these. When staff read children stories, they leave off the end of sentences for children to finish. This helps to keep children engaged and enables them to contribute to the story telling. Children in the toddler room are supported to have a 'can-do' attitude to learning. For example, when they thread wooden shapes onto a pole and begin to struggle, staff say 'keep trying'. This encourages children to persevere.

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

• The manager and staff place a strong focus on supporting children's communication and language skills. In the baby room, staff sing plenty of songs to children as they play and during routines of the day to help support their speaking skills. Staff in the pre-school room explain the meaning of new words, such as 'secure', when children enclose toy animals in pretend cages. This helps to extend their vocabulary and understanding of words.
• Staff know the children well through an effective key-person system. When children first start attending, they are invited to attend for settling-in visits. This is when their key person helps children to become confident and familiar with the nursery, supporting their emotional well-being.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well by staff. Individual targets are put in place and shared with parents to meet children's individual needs in the nursery and at home. The manager spends additional funding effectively to meet the needs of individual children. For example, the staffing ratio is enhanced to provide children with further support to help manage their feelings and emotions.
• Staff say that they feel supported and valued by the management team. They attend supervision meetings with the manager. This helps them to reflect on their practice and identify professional development opportunities. For example, staff complete training courses to develop their understanding of how to identify and support children if they have speech delay.
• The manager and staff gather feedback from parents, helping them to reflect on their practice. Recent changes in the pre-school room promote children's listening and attention skills. For example, staff provide children with activities for short periods of time before expecting them to sit and listen for longer. This helps to prepare children for future learning at school.
• Staff promote positive behaviour. For example, in the baby room, staff clap their hands to praise children's achievements. This helps to raise children's self-esteem. In the toddler room, staff sing a song to remind children to use good manners.
• Children are excited to join in activities staff plan for them. However, occasionally, when staff intend to support certain aspects of children's learning during planned activities, they do not carry this out in practice. This means that some children are not able to learn as much as possible. For example, when staff in the pre-school room plan to support children's social interactions with their peers as they explore pumpkins, this is not fully achieved.
• Staff support children's mathematical skills, such as to recognise numbers, weight and size. For example, when children explore pumpkins in the nursery garden, staff help them to measure and weigh the pumpkins. Staff ask children to find a pumpkin the same size as a ball.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop the implementation of planned activities to reflect the identified learning intention for the children taking part.