Yocheved Segal Creche

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted with a warm welcome by the leaders and staff. They confidently enter their room and settle quickly, demonstrating that they feel safe and secure. The creche has an effective key-person system, which allows children time to bond with staff. This helps children to feel emotionally secure.

Staff support children's learning and development well. The curriculum provided offers challenge and stimulates children's interests. Children are keen to get involved in the activities on offer and show positive attitudes to learning. Children make good progress in their learning and gain a range of skills. This helps to support their transition to their next stage of learning.

Children behave well. They show an understanding of the creche rules, and staff provide them with gentle reminders throughout the day when needed. Children follow routines well and respond positively to instructions from staff. In the baby room, the youngest children play with smiles on their faces. Babies enjoy exploring the room and pulling themselves up on the low-level furniture. Toddlers enjoy guessing 'what's in the bag?' as they put their hand inside and feel the objects. This helps to support children's language and communication skills, as they eagerly name the items they have selected.

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

• Staff recognise the importance of children learning about their feelings. They provide resources and activities that support children to understand and manage their emotions, such as circle time. For example, staff read books that encourage children to talk about their feelings.
• Staff know their key children well, and they take the time to get to know their likes and dislikes. They plan the environment with children's interests in mind. For example, in the children's rooms, staff have created cosy areas with family photos to make children feel at home. This gives children a space to be relaxed and develop a sense of calm. The well-being of the children is at the heart of staff's plans. For instance, children enjoy spending time in the sensory room, where they take part in calming activities and make use of the music and lights.
• Children are supported to develop their self-care skills. For example, children are reminded to wash their hands before sitting at the table to eat. However, staff do not consistently support children to manage tasks for themselves. For example, staff are too eager to help children to wipe their noses. Consequently, children do not always consistently develop their independence skills.
• Children use bricks to build towers, developing their understanding of how they are making it taller. They work together to add further bricks, observing that the tower is 'taller' than themselves. This shows the use of good mathematical language and concepts.
• Staff help children to be physically active. Older children have fun pretending to be on a bus singing 'The Wheels on the Bus'. Younger children enjoy learning how to blow bubbles. They smile when they watch bubbles float into the air. This supports children's physical development well.
• Staff offer lots of praise and ask questions to encourage children to think about what they are learning. However, when asking questions, some staff do not always give children enough time to answer. This means children are not always given the opportunity to think about and process the information and respond.
• The manager implements an effective programme of supervision and appraisal for all staff. Staff report how valued and supported they feel. Staff well-being is given priority. They work well together as part of a caring team, and they are enthusiastic and motivated, which creates a happy environment for children.
• Staff have established positive partnerships with parents. Parents are incredibly happy with the care that the creche provides. They particularly like the information that they receive about their children's day at the creche. Parents say that this gives them reassurance to know that their children are safe and settled. The manager and staff work closely with parents about the expectations of the creche. This creates a positive relationship with the parents, which supports children in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to enhance children's communication and language development further through, for example, giving children more time to process and respond to questions
• promote children's independence skills further by encouraging them to do more for themselves.