Wilstock Gardens Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and excited to engage in their play and activities. They are inquisitive and enjoy exploring, leading their own learning. Staff follow sensitive settling-in procedures. Children new to the setting quickly feel secure and engage in the good learning experiences. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully included in all activities, and all staff understand and meet their needs well.

Children are eager to join in with adult-led activities. For example, they enthusiastically gather round to make salt dough, learning what and how much of the ingredients they need. They see what impact adding water has and describe how it feels, using words like 'sticky'. They use a range of tools to make changes, and staff help them to describe their imaginative creations. Children enjoy acting out real situations, such as having a birthday party. Young children learn new words, such as spatula, as they pretend to bake a cake. Staff challenge older children well as they encourage them to make predictions, such as how many more slices they need to make a whole cake. They then find out by trial and error if they are correct. Staff add additional resources to extend children's knowledge. For example, as children name colours of paint, staff add more to challenge them further.

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

• The manager plans an ambitious curriculum, focusing on securing children's prime areas of development to build firm foundations for their next stages of learning. She intends for staff to narrate, recast and add to children's language skills, ensuring they repeat words in different contexts to embed and help children's understanding. This is implemented well, so children become confident communicators. Although children enjoy stories, staff do not use them as effectively to help older children understand that they can also be used to supply information.
• Overall, staff implement the curriculum successfully. The well-planned environment enables children to make choices and lead their play. Staff take an interest in what fascinates children, which motivates children to be confident to have a go and keep persevering with new tasks. This underpins their resilience and ability to learn. However, they do not always make full use of routines, such as snack and lunchtime, as a learning opportunity.
• The manager oversees the monitoring and assessment of children's development well. The required progress checks between the ages of two and three are thorough and provide good information to quickly identify any gaps and work with outside agencies to help children catch up. Parents and staff work together well, such as helping children to use a potty and preparing them for school.
• The manager and staff place a strong focus on health and well-being as central to children's development. Staff keep children safe in the sun and teach them healthy practices. Children have daily opportunities to engage in physical activities and develop their core strength. For example, they gain a strong sense of achievement as they hang on and swing from bars. This strengthens their shoulders and hands ready for writing. Babies and toddlers climb on soft play equipment, promoting their balance and coordination.
• Children behave extremely well. Staff are kind, gentle and respectful towards them, so children respond well to their interactions. For example, young children happily cooperate with nappy changing, as staff smile and chat with them. Older children listen well to important safety instructions and take appropriate action to prevent accidents. For example, they confidently swing on ropes, stopping to avoid collisions.
• Parents are extremely positive about the setting. They comment on how well their children are progressing, particularly in their speech, confidence and physical development. They confirm how well staff know their children as individuals and how the good information enables them to support children's learning at home.
• The manager supports her staff well in evaluating their practice. She enables them to gain qualifications and, through observation and feedback, she improves the quality of teaching and learning. The staff are enthusiastic, and the manager recognises their strengths and areas for development. In addition, she provides free healthy lifestyle courses for parents, which has a positive impact on children's welfare and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make greater use of routines to support children's learning further
• help older children to gain an understanding that books can be used for information, to extend their literacy development.