Wellies

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are welcoming as children arrive happily at the nursery. Children are eager to explore and take part in the range of activities staff offer them. For example, older children scoop sand into sieves and giggle as they shake it out for their friends to catch. Babies confidently explore the environment around them. They crawl and snuggle into staff for reassurance when needed. Staff working with babies sing songs and encourage them to join in with actions, supporting their physical and language skills. Staff know children well and provide them with invitations to learn as they set up activities that follow children's interests. This includes babies being creative and showing enjoyment as they glue and stick coloured paper. Young children tip, pour and splash in the water tray, helping to develop their hand-eye coordination.

Children's physical development is supported well. Staff offer children ideas and suggestions about how to move their bodies in different ways, encouraging them to take and manage their own risks in play. This results in children climbing ladders and confidently walking down slopes in the garden. Staff are positive role models and their interactions with children are respectful. Therefore, when children create obstacle courses in the garden and younger children find these challenging, older children recognise and respond with kindness. They offer them encouragement and help.

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

• Staff gather information from parents when children first start about their care needs, routines and interests. They use this to implement routines and support children's interests, helping them to settle well. However, when children start, staff do not gather information from parents about children's prior learning and what they already know and can do to help them plan more precisely for their development on entry.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well. Staff are proactive in working with parents and other professionals to implement targeted support to build on children's development. Furthermore, the nursery makes good use of additional funding to meet children's individual needs. For example, small easy grip cups have been purchased to help children develop the skill of drinking from an open cup.
• Staff provide a curriculum to support communication and language well. Babies enjoy listening to staff read stories and sing songs throughout the day. Staff engage older children in two-way conversations and model new vocabulary for them to hear. Staff encourage children to communicate their wishes and feelings as they play alongside one another.
• Overall, staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. They support children to be kind to one another by providing gentle reminders when needed. However, behaviour expectations are not consistently applied by staff across the nursery. This results in children, sometimes, ignoring staff's instructions and, at times, disrupting other children's learning.
• Staff encourage children to be independent. For example, they support babies to develop the skill of using cutlery to feed themselves from a young age. Pre-school children serve their own meals. Children manage tasks when asked, including dressing themselves and putting on their shoes. This helps to prepare them for the next stage and move to school.
• Staff promote children's personal development well. They support children to understand the importance of washing their hands before eating and after playing in the mud to remove germs. Furthermore, staff provide children with areas where they can access their own tissues. This allows children to develop their self-care skills as they use mirrors to wipe their faces.
• Parents comment positively about the nursery. They value the information they receive from staff about their child's day on collection and the updates via the online app. Parents state that staff go 'above and beyond' and are happy with how their children are developing. They appreciate the support staff have provided to help their children with toilet training.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• gather information from parents about what children already know and can do when they first start to help plan more precisely for their learning from the outset
• support staff to apply behaviour expectations consistently, so children receive consistent messages supporting their ability to follow instructions.