Town & Country Kiddies

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. When they arrive at nursery, children confidently leave parents at the door and are keen to join staff. Children play harmoniously with others and learn to take turns. Staff have high expectations of how children can learn positive behaviours. They help them to think about ways in which they can share toys with others. As a result, children play cooperatively and are kind to their friends.

Children are happy and excited to explore their surroundings. They demonstrate good balance and coordination when they climb over obstacles and walk across wooden beams outdoors. Older children enjoy squirting water into the air and when it falls to the ground, they tell their friends, 'it's raining'. Children develop confidence when they spend time with their peers in small groups. They sit together and share a book about nature. Staff support this and help children learn the names of insects and animals they would not normally see, such as a cricket and skunk. Children are creative and demonstrate good imaginative skills. They find rocks, flowers and soil in the garden, mix them together and pretend to make rock cakes.

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

• The management team evaluate the quality of the nursery. An outcome of this is that the manager purchased long handled spades for children to use in the garden. This contributes to children developing physical skills when they use them to dig in the soil.
• Staff support children to be emotionally ready for their move on to school. Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, they invite school teachers to meet children in the nursery garden instead of indoors. Children have opportunities to interact and get to know their new teacher.
• The manager and staff identify children's needs and use additional funding to support children's speaking skills. For example, staff provide children with toys that enable them to talk to their friends who are in another room, this helps to develop their language skills.
• The management team supports staff well, including their well-being. Staff attend supervision meetings with the manager to reflect on their practice and identify further professional development opportunities. As a result, it was identified that staff needed more support to help children to develop their early writing skills.
• Staff actively promote positive behaviour. They remind children of the rules and boundaries in the nursery, such as to use 'walking feet' indoors. Children behave well.
• Staff use the curriculum to offer children opportunities to extend their experiences. They encourage children to learn 'yoga' to develop their strength. Staff ask children to choose what position they would like to make with their bodies. They give them step-by-step instructions on how they can achieve this. Children listen, respond and manage to move their bodies as directed.
• Staff encourage children to solve problems in their play. For example, when children put a toy at one end of a long tube, staff ask them how they can make it roll to the other end. Children think about what objects they can use to lift the tube at one end in order to make this happen. This demonstrates their ability to think critically.
• The management team and staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They put targeted plans in place and work closely with parents and other professionals to support children's individual needs.
• Staff encourage children to complete simple tasks that help to promote their independence. For example, children help to tidy away toys and clean the tops of tables. This contributes to children's sense of responsibility.
• There are times when teaching during planned activities is not strong. Staff do not think about how they can hold children's interest. As a result, children sometimes disengage and do not focus.
• Staff use daily routines to help children learn how to be safe. This is demonstrated when children say, 'we need to hold the bannister', when walking up and down the stairs in the setting. However, leaders do not help children and parents understand how children can stay safe online at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's understanding of how to hold children's interest during planned activities to help children to focus and engage in learning
• ensure leaders help parents and children understand how to stay safe online.