Yellow Wellies

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at this welcoming nursery. They have close attachments with their key person and develop a strong sense of belonging. Staff are very kind and caring towards children and tend to their individual needs well. This supports children's emotional well-being. Children's behaviour is good. Changes to the play areas, routines and the deployment of staff mean that staff have more time to support children's understanding of good behaviour. For example, staff demonstrate friendly, caring conversations and constantly praise children to boost their confidence and self-esteem. Children talk about how they are feeling and describe their emotions. They play in a calm learning environment, inside and outdoors.

Children have great fun and are motivated to learn. Babies are fascinated by their reflection in mirrors and squeal in delight when they recognise themselves. They eagerly explore how they can make plastic ducks spin and squirt in water play, and enjoy splashing the cheery staff. Older children spend time outside recreating an Easter egg hunt and hide pretend eggs all around the garden. They help each other find them, swap their favourite colours and count and compare what is in their baskets. These experiences help children to build on their existing knowledge and to develop new skills ready for school.

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

• The new owners and current managers have a strong drive to improve the quality of the nursery and have worked hard to make many changes. These are having a positive impact on all children's care and learning, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff interact well with children. They encourage them to keep trying, ask questions and pose challenges as they play.
• Overall, the curriculum is planned and organised effectively. The managers are clear about what they want children to learn. They check the learning intention of activities with staff and discuss planning ideas, in particular to aid those children from disadvantaged households to be ready for school. However, some aspects of the curriculum are being reviewed even further to ensure that all staff know the order in which children learn new skills. This is to ensure that children's learning is even better sequenced throughout the whole nursery.
• The experienced special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) recognises when children need extra support. She finds out about available advice and funding swiftly. The SENCo works with staff to create individual plans and to organise small-group times to help children to make good progress. Staff work closely with parents and external professionals. A shared agreement is used in the nursery and at home, to help children catch up and support their ongoing development.
• Partnerships with parents are a strength of the nursery. Parents' feedback is highly complimentary. They say that staff support the whole family, not just their children. Parents recognise the importance of working in partnership to support their children's learning and development, and value the opportunities they have to contribute. They say that their children talk about staff with great warmth. Parents comment that staff foster children's love of books at home.
• Staff use consistently good modelling and give messages to support children's growing understanding of good personal hygiene skills. They regularly discuss the importance of hygiene to stay healthy, including oral health. Older children remind their friends about the importance of drinking water when they are thirsty. This helps children's personal development.
• Leaders encourage staff to attend training to extend their teaching skills further. For instance, since the last inspection, staff have attended a course on how to create language-rich environments for children. This has had an immediate effect on children's growing vocabulary and imagination skills.
• Children have good opportunities to learn about their local community. They regularly share in local events. For example, children enjoyed a trip to a railway museum. They sing songs outside a local care home to the residents. However, at times, staff are not as effective as they could be in supporting children to extend their understanding of equality and diversity. They sometimes do not extend children's understanding of the world when they ask questions about people and places that interest them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to implement the curriculum with even more precision, to sequence and build the knowledge and skills that children need to acquire
• enrich opportunities for children to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others in their communities, as well as different cultures.