YMCA @St James Road

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children make progress at this nursery. Staff get to know them well and develop good relationships with their families. Staff are caring towards children and are responsive to their needs. For example, when babies are settling to sleep, staff sit with them and provide comfort to help them to feel safe and relaxed.

Staff help children to learn about speed and distance as they roll cars down tracks outdoors. They describe how fast cars go and how far they have gone. Children use this language as they continue their play. They learn to develop their gross motor skills and gain control over their muscles. Staff organise the environment so that children have opportunities to practise moving over different levels. Children enjoy climbing on higher surfaces and jumping off.

Children are respectful and considerate of one another. Staff remind them of behaviour rules and teach them to use manners. When children do experience some difficulties, staff stay calm and help them to understand how their actions make others feel. As a result, children learn to play cooperatively together. They learn to take turns and are observed waiting patiently for toys that their friends are using.

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

• The provider has recently undergone a period of uncertainty. In response to unforeseen staff changes, the provider has taken swift and appropriate action to ensure that the early years foundation stage requirements continue to be met. As a result, there has been no impact for children and their learning.
• The curriculum is well understood by leaders and staff. The learning experiences of children are sequenced as they move through the nursery, to build on their existing knowledge and skills. For example, babies learn how different materials feel as they splash in trays of gloop. Older children learn the names of different materials and their extended properties, such as how they smell and what happens when they are mixed together.
• Children become good communicators. Staff plan activities that promote children's curiosity. Children are confident and describe what they do as they play. They recall experiences from home and express their imagination through role play. Staff ask children open-ended questions and support them to think critically as they improve their problem-solving skills.
• All children show an interest in the activities on offer and are keen to learn. Staff generally support children's learning well and suitably extend their knowledge. However, children who are quieter or less confident are sometimes overlooked as more-confident children capture the attention of staff more easily. At these times, quieter children's experiences are not extended as well as they could be.
• Support for children who may have special educational needs and/or disabilities is good. Leaders work closely with parents and other professionals to ensure that children have suitable support in place. They use additional funding well to provide resources that cater for children's individual needs. Consequently, all children make good progress.
• Leaders implement suitable recruitment and induction procedures to ensure the suitability of staff. They review the progress of new staff regularly, and ask questions that support the consolidation of their knowledge.
• Staff feel supported by leaders. They receive regular supervision meetings where they discuss their well-being and the support they may need in their role. Leaders identify some training to improve staff knowledge. However, this is not always focused specifically on supporting relief staff, who normally work at other nurseries within the YMCA group, to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively. For example, some staff do not always ensure that children have clean cloths to wipe their hands and face after eating.
• Parents comment that their children are happy to attend, and staff are friendly. They see their children making progress as a result of attending the nursery. However, some parents feel that communication from staff could be improved. They do not always receive regular communication about the activities their children engage with, or how they can support their children's learning further at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help quieter, less-confident children to fully access the activities on offer in order to extend their learning further
• strengthen the arrangements for supporting staff who do not always work at the nursery, so that they understand how to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively
• improve the regular two-way flow of information with parents to ensure that they have information about the activities provided and how to support children's learning at home.