Twinkle Tots

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed into the nursery by enthusiastic and attentive staff. Children have strong bonds with staff and confidently separate from their parents, showing that they feel safe and secure. Children quickly settle and begin to explore. Staff use their knowledge of the children to plan interesting activities unique to their needs and interests, helping children to engage in their learning and development. The curriculum offers children a broad range of learning experiences. Developing children's independence is of high importance. Staff support this throughout the provision, including snack and mealtimes. For example, the youngest children happily wipe the tables after snack, while the older children competently serve themselves lunch. Children visibly thrive under the gentle encouragement of the staff and smile with pride as they are praised for their efforts.

Staff actively support children's emotional well-being through different experiences and resources. Children explore mindfulness through activities such as yoga and enjoy sharing the experience with each other and staff. Staff are positive role-models for behaviour, speaking to each other and the children with high levels of respect. Staff support children to build positive relationships by teaching them about sharing and turn taking. When children have minor disputes, adults encourage them to consider what they can do to find a resolution themselves.

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

• The broad curriculum ensures that children have access to a variety of development opportunities across all areas of learning. There are distinct learning aims for each of the rooms, with clear progression in skills as children transition through the nursery. For example, children's literacy is supported in the first instance through exploring books, songs and rhymes, while in the pre-school room children are beginning to discover phonics. Staff gather detailed information about children, including what they can already do. This enables staff to establish what they may need to learn next according to their unique learning needs.
• Leaders are proactive in supporting children's physical health and well-being. Physical activity sessions have been added to the curriculum to ensure that children are being given adequate opportunity to exercise. A growing area has been added to the outdoor provision so that children can now experience growing their own food. Staff use snack and mealtimes to talk to children about the healthy foods they are eating, using food as fuel, and the importance of oral health.
• Staff support children to begin to recognise and manage risks. Children enjoy challenging themselves, both on physical equipment and by building their own obstacle courses. Staff support children to consider risk by using gentle questioning and posing ideas about what might happen from their actions. Staff encourage children to build their skills gradually to achieve their goals safely.
• Children thoroughly enjoy being with staff. Staff exude high levels of attention and genuine enthusiasm during their interactions with children, helping children to feel valued. Staff use their voices, actions and props to engage children. As a result, children are delighted throughout these experiences, giggling with excitement.
• Staff provide frequent opportunities for children to explore language and vocabulary. Staff use songs, rhymes and stories to ensure that children are hearing a range of words. However, at times, staff are not adapting the language they are using to best support the child's stage of development, lessening the opportunity for children to learn new words or knowledge.
• Staff support children's confidence and self-esteem through consistent praise for their actions, achievements and attitudes. Children are thanked for their contributions, such as participating in activities. They are also thanked for positive actions, for example sharing their toys with their friends.
• Staff feel supported by leaders. There is an ongoing process in place for supporting them in their role, and managers value their well-being. Leaders are committed to staff's development and encourage staff to access additional training of their choice.
• Leaders and staff use robust observation and assessment processes to support children's development. Children's progress is assessed and used to identify areas for additional support, ensuring that children's needs are identified quickly. Leaders and staff adapt the provision to best meet the needs of the children, such as additional physical resources in response to a child's preferred play and learning style.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Parents value the good communication from leaders and staff. Regular progress reports are received by parents, along with how they can support learning at home. Parents are pleased with the good progress being made by their children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff in developing their interactions with children to more precisely build on children's language and communication skills.