Tiddlywinks Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have fun and their days at the nursery are busy. They are enthusiastic, energetic learners, who enjoy exploring and investigating. Staff at the nursery follow the interests of children. They adopt approaches that develop and instil a love of learning. Overall, children's individual learning needs are met with each child following a personalised and tailor-made day full of activities. Children enjoy role-play experiences, such as being construction workers, hairdressers, and dinosaur egg hatchers, which help to support many aspects of their learning. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, feel safe, happy and confident. They take advantage of the garden space and enjoy the various areas that promote their learning and development. Often, activities explored by children continue between the indoor and outdoor environments. For example, seeing a squirrel in the garden leads to autumn discoveries in a curiosity tray indoors.

Children are confident to welcome visitors to their nursery. They happily share their experiences and want to draw them into their play. Children clearly understand the high expectations staff have of their behaviour. They are polite, helpful and kind. Children understand the need to take turns and share. They are praised for their efforts and behaviour, and this contributes to their confidence and self-worth.

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

• The manager and staff team create a warm and welcoming environment for the children and their families. The nursery has become a small community hub that supports the families and carers throughout their time in the nursery.
• The nursery set up initiatives to help parents and children throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, play and stay sessions are helping children catch up on learning missed during the lockdown periods and to close any possible gaps in their development.
• Parents are quick to recommend the nursery. They appreciate the feedback staff give daily about the child's experiences and daily achievements. They find the activities the staff suggest that can be continued at home are easy and exciting to achieve. They appreciate the value of these joint activities.
• Staff make observations and assessments about each child's learning. Overall, these are used skilfully to create and design interesting and challenging activities that support children's learning, and to develop further their knowledge and understanding. For example, children's progress is tracked and any gaps are quickly addressed by including children in early intervention and catch-up schemes.
• Managers support the staff team well. They identify their needs and help them to access training. Staff are encouraged to take on responsibilities and roles that enhance and ensure the smooth running of the nursery. Staff enjoy the high-quality training and qualifications that they achieve, which they share as good practice with each other.
• Children enjoy the experiences of staff playing alongside them. Staff are eager to become involved and share experiences with them. Bonds between the staff and the children are strong. This leads to a safe learning environment, where children are happy and feel secure. As a result, children settle quickly and make good progress during the time they spend there.
• Staff understand the importance of developing children's language and communication skills. A number of initiatives and plans are in place to support this development. This includes good support for children who speak English as an additional language. Staff carefully choose words that are significant to each child and supports their development well. This helps to develop children's knowledge and ensures their wishes and interests are understood. However, at times, staff are too eager and respond for children when they ask them questions. They do not always give them enough time to think about the answer and respond, to raise their communication skills even further.
• Staff are intuitive and want the best outcome for each child and for them to succeed to their full potential. However, occasionally, staff intervene too early and help children rather than giving them opportunities to persevere and do things for themselves. For instance, they roll out dough for children or put on their wellington boots.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use more effective methods of planning and teaching, in particular questioning techniques, so that the children's communication and language can be developed to a higher level
• develop more strategies that allow children to become even more independent in what they can do and achieve for themselves.