Wiggles and Giggles

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate their confidence, eagerly leaving their parents as they are greeted by warm and friendly staff. Children are happy and can often be heard laughing with their friends and staff. Leaders implement a strong curriculum that supports children to learn key skills from a young age and helps prepare them for the next stage of learning. For instance, staff encourage children to undertake risk assessments to manage their safety. Children show they understand how to keep themselves safe as they tell staff the equipment may be slippery as it is wet.

Children benefit from the vast and varied resources on offer. The open-ended nature of the materials staff provide encourages children's curiosity. Children become fully immersed in play for long periods. Staff are enthusiastic; they join children's play and introduce mathematical concepts. For example, as children build ramps, staff encourage them to adjust the height and compare which is the tallest. Children learn that when they add more bricks the ramp is taller. They use this newly acquired knowledge to compare who is the tallest and shortest out of their friends.

Children learn to behave well. Staff praise positive behaviours and support children to understand what they expect from a young age. They offer children gentle reminders, such as to use 'walking feet' inside. Staff set clear boundaries and provide times in the day to reflect on the nursery rules. Children confidently recall and follow these rules and provide reminders for their friends. For instance, when children sneeze while baking, their friends prompt them to wash their hands.

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

• The staff and the managers understand how children learn. They use their knowledge to plan a well-sequenced and ambitious curriculum for all children. Staff assess and identify children who need additional support and quickly provide targeted support. They use children's next steps to tailor their interactions with each child. This helps to ensure children make rapid progress in their development.
• Staff are skilled at furthering children's communication and language skills. They position themselves to help children see their gestures and facial expressions. They introduce descriptive words, such as sour, as children compare different fruits. Staff frequently name objects and introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary. Children listen and learn these words quickly. For example, while young children play in the sand, staff comment on what children are doing. Young children listen and attempt to use new words as they scoop sand into buckets.
• Staff have high expectations of children and frequently challenge them to extend skills and knowledge. However, when children are mistaken, staff do not always address these misconceptions. For instance, when children incorrectly identify healthy and unhealthy foods, this is not corrected to support children's accurate knowledge.
• The managers and staff prioritise children's health and help them to understand healthy lifestyles. Staff encourage children to participate in exercise that enables them to move their bodies in a variety of ways. Staff ensure children eat healthy foods at the nursery and support children to learn to eat their healthy foods before their treats. Additionally, while children brush their teeth, staff support children to learn the importance of oral health.
• Staff build excellent partnerships with parents; they gather information frequently from families. Staff use this information to tailor the support they provide for children. For example, staff create learning packs for families to borrow that support areas of children's development at home, including potty training and nutrition.
• The managers and staff identify ways to develop new skills through ongoing supervision. Staff state they feel valued and supported, which helps them to share good practice and new ideas. Consequently, improvements are implemented quickly, and children receive consistently high-quality interactions to support their learning.
• Staff skilfully help children understand their emotions and support them to learn how others might feel. For instance, they use figures in a doll's house to act out scenarios such as a child upsetting another child. Staff talk to children about how each character would feel and name emotions. Children begin to use these experiences to show empathy and kindness to their friends. For example, when children bump into their friends, they stop what they are doing to check if they are okay and apologise.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff skills in identifying children's misconceptions and quickly correcting them to help children develop accurate knowledge.