Tiny Tots Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have a happy and positive start to their education at this nursery. Staff provide a welcoming environment and develop nurturing relationships with children. This helps children to feel safe, secure and ready to learn. For example, babies are drawn to a display of family photos and are delighted to find pictures of themselves and their parents. They are eager to communicate their excitement to staff, using sounds and simple words.

Staff understand the importance of promoting healthy lifestyles for children to help them develop positive habits for later life. For instance, staff ensure that children have many opportunities to be active, such as through daily outdoor play in the nursery garden and during sports and dance sessions. These help children to see exercise as fun.

Staff have high expectations for children. They support them to develop the behaviour, skills and attitudes that they need to be successful in their future learning. Staff provide a wide range of stimulating and adaptable learning experiences, such as sand and dough. These spark children's curiosity and encourage them to explore their individual interests and fascinations. Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning as they play. for example, older children are energetic, enthusiastic and imaginative in their role play and storytelling.

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

• The manager is passionate about her role and provides strong leadership. She and staff continually develop the provision to provide good quality care and education for all children. They offer a broad and well-sequenced curriculum to help children build on what they know and can do. This supports all children, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those receiving funding, to make good progress.
• Staff access a wide variety of high-quality training opportunities. They speak enthusiastically about their new skills and the positive impact on children's learning. For instance, staff have introduced a 'small parts area' for older children, with a range of interesting and adaptable resources. They describe how this has helped children to develop their imaginations and enhance their thinking skills.
• Overall, the quality of teaching is good. Staff patiently demonstrate new skills to children, encourage them to have a go and praise their efforts and achievements. This helps to nurture children's positive attitudes to learning. Staff sing and read with children often and generally support their language development well. However, there are occasions when staff are not consistent in promoting children's language skills and vocabulary to the highest standard.
• Staff support children to become confident and independent learners. For instance, they teach toddlers how to mix their own 'gloop' using cornflour and water. Staff demonstrate how to transfer the water by using pipettes and encourage children to try this out for themselves. They provide lots of praise, which motivates children to practise and refine their new skills.
• Children and staff come from a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds, which is valued and respected in the setting. The environment and activities reflect children's own experiences and help them to learn about other people and communities. Staff ensure that children who speak English as an additional language consistently hear and use familiar words and phrases from home. This helps all children to develop high levels of self-esteem.
• Staff are positive role models, and they provide consistent routines and boundaries. These support children to understand what is expected of them and generally their behaviour is very good. When children have occasional disagreements, staff step in to support them with explanations, reassurance or distractions. However, staff do not always support children effectively to identify and express their feelings and emotions.
• The manager and staff understand the importance of positive parental partnerships. They ensure that there is a good two-way flow of information to support children's care and learning. For instance, they share photos and observations of children's activities and achievements by using an online system. Parents describe the warm and caring relationships between children and staff, which help children to enjoy their time at the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's interactions with children to promote their communication and language skills even more effectively
• help staff to further support children's understanding of feelings and emotions.