Wheatley Hill Community Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this very friendly, warm and welcoming setting. They are settled and happy as they sing songs and play imaginatively with friends. Staff are respectful, patient, and kind. They build wonderful relationships with children in their care. Children are curious and engaged. They show high levels of concentration as they carefully cut with scissors and push straws through holes in metal containers. Children show they are willing to try and they persist when tasks become challenging, for example as they carefully unwrap baubles from silver foil.

Staff provide strong support for children to express their feelings and manage their behaviour. Staff use books with children to explore different emotions and breathing techniques to help them remain calm. Staff provide plenty of praise and encouragement. This helps promote children's confidence and self-esteem. They are clear with their praise so children know precisely what they have done well and can celebrate their achievements.

Children are becoming increasingly independent. They put on their coats and shoes before going outside to play. They safely chop their fruit and pour their drinks at mealtimes. Staff support children to make simple choices, such as what colour placemat to have and which piece of fruit to eat. Staff talk to children about how healthy foods give them energy and help to make them strong.

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

• Support for children's learning is consistently good across the setting. Staff follow children's lead in play. They model new skills and provide clear instructions.
• Staff are clear about where children are in their development and what they need to learn next. They weave support for this through exciting and challenging experiences that reflect children's interests.
• Familiar daily routines help children feel settled and secure. Children sometimes become restless however, while waiting to move from one part of the daily routine to another.
• There is a strong focus on support for children's developing communication and language skills. Staff use stories and singing to help embed and extend children's language. They repeat back children's words to them. This helps them to know their words are valued and understood.
• Staff help to instil in children a love of books and storytelling. They support children to embed their learning through a 'book of the month'. Staff talk to children about how books are constructed and help them to label different parts and roles, such as 'cover, spine, illustrator and author'. Staff are skilled at storytelling. However, the way in which group times are structured means that children sometimes become distracted.
• Staff plan good support for children's developing physical skills. Children balance on beams and stepping stones. They navigate obstacle courses in the setting's spacious, enclosed garden.
• Additional funding and fundraising helps to provide exciting experiences for children. For example, children benefit from new books to explore and digital cameras for them to capture their experiences at the setting.
• Children learn about their local community and the lives of others through trips to a local care home and the library, where they take part in sensory play. They help to mark events such as Remembrance Day, by walking with staff to the local cenotaph.
• Parents speak very highly of the setting and its staff team. They praise the dedication of staff and say they feel well informed about their child's day. Staff build strong partnerships with parents through events such as 'stay and play' and by sharing books and ideas for learning with parents to explore with their children at home.
• There is strong support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff work closely with other professionals in health and education, such as health visitors and local school staff, involved with children in their care. This helps create a consistent approach to support for children's learning.
• Leaders provide strong support for their staff team, in terms of their professional development and well-being. They provide rich opportunities for staff to update their skills and knowledge.
• Leaders are very reflective. They gather the views of parents and staff through questionnaires and use this information to plan continuous improvements. Staff work really well together as a team. All staff and those involved with the setting are committed, hard-working and passionate about the service they provide.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to support better support children's focus as they move from one part of the daily routine to another
• review the structure of group times to reduce distractions, in order to support children's already good listening and attention skills to an even higher level.