Trust Taplins Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and immensely enjoy their time at nursery. They build strong relationships with their friends and their key person. Children show eagerness when they first arrive and are keen to follow the new COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic arrival procedure. For example, they stand with their parent patiently on one of the mathematical shapes in the hall. Their key person greets them and talks to their parent or carer. Children show motivation, excitement and focused attention during play because staff have high expectations of them. Older children independently handle books with ease. They join in the narrative of a favourite interactive story and take turns to select knitted props, which link to the caterpillar story.

Children are eager to talk and share their skills and talents with the staff and visitors. Those children with specific styles of learning can access the curriculum in their preferred way. For example, children lie on their backs under a table that has paper taped underneath and use pens to draw and make marks. Babies have fun splashing in water and touching and handling the fresh herbs. They enjoy the space they have to practise their walking and are given attentive support from the staff. Children are well behaved and are learning to label their feelings. This is because staff focus a lot on 'emotion coaching'. Children are cared for in a safe and secure environment where there is high attention on their health and well-being.

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

• The leaders and managers have a clear ambition to provide high-quality, inclusive care to all. They have an accurate self-assessment and a well-focused development plan. This includes developing the garden and researching the ultraviolet sun index rating, which currently restricts children's garden time.
• Partnership with parents is very good. Parents speak knowingly of the excellent communication they receive and describe good learning outcomes for their children. Parents feel valued during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when they chose to stay at home with their children. For example, some parents received a phone call from their child's key person and guidance on how to manage their children's behaviour during restrictions.
• The leaders and managers have a clear curriculum that is designed to offer children meaningful experiences across all areas of learning. For example, they noted that children would safely climb the plastic frame in the garden and sit on the top, pretending to ride a horse. They then introduced recycled props, including a ladder, for children to design their own obstacle course. This helped to further develop children's climbing and balancing skills.
• The staff know the children, children's families and the play and learning experiences children receive at home very well. They effectively build on this knowledge to ensure children develop positive attitudes to learning and high levels of concentration. However, staff do not consistently challenge the most-able children at the setting, particularly in literacy.
• The special educational needs coordinator has received good training to be able to support staff who care for children with special educational needs. She has developed individual educational plans and specific teaching strategies, such as Makaton and picture communication cards, which staff use to aid children's progress. Additional funding is used well to support children's progress.
• The staff ensure that babies follow good, flexible care routines that meet their needs well. New babies receive lots of cuddles and attention from their key person to help them settle. After some nursery research about babies' sleep habits, management introduced 'white noise' into the sleep room. Consequently, babies can sleep soundly and for longer, just like at home.
• Children enjoy healthy, nutritious food during the social mealtimes. They sit together with friends and staff in their room 'bubbles'. This creates a relaxed, family atmosphere. It is a well-managed time, which supports children's strong growth and development. Staff pay good attention to children with allergies who have a care plan in order to maintain their good health.
• Staff receive regular support, training and supervision from the management team. This helps to develop their all-round competencies and their well-being. Management monitor staff's teaching practice. However, this is not currently highly effective. This is because not all staff have a robust understanding of what they intend children to learn from an adult-led activity. On occasions, staff can lose sight of the learning intention during the implementation of the activity.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the quality of education to an outstanding level with higher emphasis on developing staff's knowledge of the learning intent and implementation of adult-led activities
• develop staff's practice and skills to ensure that they can differentiate their teaching and can offer challenge to the most-able children.