Wem Playmates Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager makes full use of the outdoors to deliver their curriculum. Children relish the opportunities for the play experiences within the nursery outdoor premises and their woodland play area. Staff plan purposeful activies based on children's recent play interests to support their learning. Toddlers eagerly observe and discuss the changes in the wormery they have recently helped to build. They use their understanding of shapes as they gather natural resources to create faces. Children show high levels of motivation, particularly while they play outdoors.

The manager provides children with a wide range of opportunities to be physically active and to develop their muscle strength. Babies climb in and out of the large sand pit and develop their confidence to balance as they travel across a wide beam. Pre-school children can attend swimming lessons and dance sessions.

Children have formed strong attachments to the staff and enjoy their company. Children show they feel happy, safe and secure in their care. Staff follow rigorous risk assessments to ensure that children's safety is paramount on the many outings they organise. The manager ensures high staff to child ratios to support these daily enhancements to children's development. Children understand staff's expectations for their behaviour and sensibly walk with them during outings. The manager varies the weekly activities to provide children with equal opportunities so they can all access the broad range of learning experiences.

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

• The manager, who is also the provider, is committed to making ongoing improvements that benefit children. For example, she has detailed plans to further enhance children's outdoor learning provision.
• The manager provides staff with ongoing professional development. All staff complete frequent training to update their safeguarding knowledge and first-aid skills. The manager completes daily learning walks and monitors the quality of teaching. However, this has not been fully effective in identifying where staff need more guidance to consistently provide children with the highest level of teaching and learning experiences, particularly with the older children.
• The manager has identified some clear learning progression aims as children meet key development milestones. The curriculum for babies is well designed and gives staff a clear direction for their assessment and teaching. However, the manager has not precisely identified how to help older children to build on their knowledge and skills to challenge them fully in their learning.
• An effective key person system ensures that children's needs are met well. Each child has a dedicated key person to liaise with their families and have a comprehensive understanding of their personalities, health and development requirements. Overall, staff make good use of their observations and assessments to plan for children's learning.
• The manager and staff are proactive in identifying when children are not meeting their development milestones and need additional support. They work closely with outside agencies so that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive the support they need. Staff are skilled in implementing children's targeted support plans. They use a variety of effective strategies that support children's ability to communicate their needs and wishes.
• Staff provide children with good interactions that enhance children's play interests. They illustrate rhymes and babies point to the pictures as they sing along with them. Staff recognise when to adjust their language to support children at different stages of their development.
• Staff successfully promote children's critical thinking and reasoning skills. They know how to adjust their questioning to encourage children to find solutions to problems. This supports children to be confident and independent learners. Staff skilfully weave mathematical exploration into their teaching. Pre-school children enthusiastically compare the size of the buildings in their drawings. They learn how to use a tape measure to find out how tall they are.
• Staff adapt their teaching and recognise opportunities when they can support children's social skills. For example, as they invite other children to join in with their play. Staff positively reinforce children's good behaviour, such as sharing resources with a friend. Pre-school children play collaboratively.
• Staff support children's independence well and adapt the routines in each room so children have the opportunities to gain confidence in their own abilities. This includes managing lunchtime routines and their personal care needs.
• The manager and staff value their partnership working with parents and encourage two-way conversations about children's development. Parents are pleased with the progress their children make and the support that staff provide.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• revise the curriculum so that this precisely identifies the knowledge and skills the children need to gain as they progress
• increase the monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning to ensure that staff provide children with the highest quality of education throughout the nursery.