Tick Tock All Stars Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at nursery and quickly settle with their chosen activity. They are learning to make friends and are developing their social skills. For example, toddlers offer chairs to each other, and pre-school children sit with their friends and share a book together. Children enjoy messy play. They watch with interest as staff show them how to sprinkle flour on their toy animals and cars. Children notice their cars are making tracks in the flour. They extend this and use their fingers to make circles and swirls. They are developing early writing skills. Staff use words such as 'clump' and 'pile' as they show children how to gather flour in a heap. Children attempt to copy these words.

Children enjoy outside play. They push themselves along in cars and on tricycles. Other children are supervised by staff as they try and balance on a large tyre. When children slip off, they are encouraged to persevere and staff praise them for their efforts. This helps children develop confidence in their coordination skills. Children laugh as they try and catch hoops that staff throw for them. When children throw the hoops back, staff remind them to look around and check before throwing, to ensure they do not hurt their friends.

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

• Staff help children to behave well. They are good role models who encourage children to use manners and be kind towards others. For example, when children want the same car, staff remind them that there are more in the box that they can chose from. Children then eagerly go and fetch their own car to play with. Staff regularly praise children during their play and daily routines. This is motivating for children and gives them a sense of pride.
• Managers and staff work closely with the local community. They know the children well and use this knowledge to plan additional activities to widen children's experiences. For example, managers provide educational packs for families to help them to support their children's learning at home. In addition, staff ensure opportunities are available for children to experience the local shops and take weekly gym sessions. This helps children to have a range of experiences that support their all-round development.
• Overall, daily routines are well organised and support children to learn. However, on occasion, children's learning is interrupted. For example, story and song time is disrupted by staff talking loudly and preparing the room for lunchtime. Consequently, children lose focus. They start to play with toys that are nearby, begin to chat to each other and some leave the activity. This disrupts children's learning and their ability to fully listen and engage in learning.
• Staff encourage children to develop their growing independence. For example, children know the routine for mealtimes and offer to help staff set out the cups and cutlery. Children learn to do things for themselves. They take care as they pour water into their cups and use serving utensils to spoon pasta onto their plates. Staff gently offer help to those children who need it. Children are keen to scrape their leftover food into the bin.
• In general, staff ensure a variety of activities are on offer to support children's interests and build on their existing knowledge and skills. However, occasionally, staff do not consider whether the spaces where children are going to play can fully support their learning. This does not help them to deliver the learning intentions of the activity. For example, a planned bug hunt is not well organised. As a result, children are unsure about what they are doing and, overall, they do not get involved in searching for bugs.
• Parents are positive about the care their children receive. They feel that communication with staff is effective, and their children have developed positive relationships with their key person. Parents state they appreciate the help staff have given them in accessing support from other services, such as speech and language therapists.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve the organisation of story and song time to ensure children are not interrupted, to allow children to remain engaged and focused
• organise all activities and the environment in which they are to be delivered in such a way that children want to engage with them and can benefit from the experience.