Tiddlywinks Pre-School @ Poverest

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff at this nursery provide children with a wide range of activities to explore. In particular, staff help children to develop physical skills outdoors. They provide exciting and challenging opportunities for children to climb, ride bikes and find bugs. Children develop high levels of curiosity. Children share the outdoor space with older children from Reception. They make lots of friends of different ages. As children play together, they build resilience and confidence. Children have high levels of self-esteem.

All staff get to know every individual child well. They build strong attachments as they listen to children and support them to express their needs. All staff engage in warm interactions with children of all ages. They celebrate individual children's achievements. This gives children confidence and helps them to feel happy and safe.

Staff at this nursery create ambitious opportunities for children to develop new knowledge and skills. They support children to develop their own interests and follow their lead in play. Children are well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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

• Managers and staff create a well-sequenced curriculum. They make sure that children are able to develop skills across the areas of learning. They consider the needs of individual children when creating opportunities for learning. All children reach their developmental milestones.
• Staff effectively assess children to get to know what they need to learn next. They use this information to provide children with challenging opportunities for learning. Where children receive funding for their early education, staff consider individual children's needs when deciding how this funding should be spent. This ensures that children are supported to have a broad range of experiences. This helps all children, including those who may be disadvantaged, to achieve the best possible outcomes.
• The deputy manager has undertaken the role of special educational needs coordinator (SENCo). She regularly attends training to keep her knowledge and skills up to date. She shares this training effectively with all staff. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) reach their best possible outcomes.
• Children's communication and language development is well supported by all staff. Staff plan the new vocabulary that children need to learn and ensure that this is suitably challenging for all children. Staff repeat the new language that they want children to learn and reinforce it throughout the day. All children develop high levels of fluency and confidence.
• Staff plan focused activities that support children well. Overall, children are curious and engaged in these activities. However, on occasion, staff step in too quickly to do things for the children without giving sufficient time for them to try for themselves. This limits children's ability to persevere and build resilience at the highest levels.
• Care practices are effective. Staff role model and support good hygiene and care practices. Children learn to wash their hands, line up to come in from the garden, and go to the toilet by themselves. All children feel emotionally secure and happy.
• Parents report that partnerships with the nursery are strong. They receive regular updates about what children are learning at the nursery. Parents say that staff support them to understand what children need to learn next. They say that communication with staff is excellent. Parents are able to use information given to them by the nursery to extend their children's learning at home.
• Managers have a clear vision for the curriculum and what it means for staff in their practice. However, this vision is not always consistently understood by staff. As a result, there are some minor inconsistencies in how staff support children to understand their expectations. Children are not always able to develop the most positive attitudes and behaviours.
• Managers are reflective of their practice. They regularly arrange continuous professional development opportunities for all staff. Staff are able to develop their teaching skills over time.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on existing good practice to ensure that all staff give children the most ambitious opportunities to try and practise new skills themselves, so that children reach the best possible outcomes
• further develop how leaders share the curriculum vision with all staff so that all staff have a firm and common understanding of their expectations so that all children are supported to develop positive behaviours at the highest levels.