Young Tots Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are supported to develop their communication and language skills. For example, in the toddler room, staff sing nursery rhymes with children. In the pre-school room, children sit well, listen and take turns in conversations during group times. This helps them to learn skills for their move on to school.

Children are supported by staff to feel safe and secure, especially when they are new to the nursery. For instance, staff spend time with new children, offering them comfort and reassurance. They distract children when they become upset, for example by showing them books or taking them to play in the garden. These strategies help children to settle. Children show positive relationships with staff. When they initiate play, staff are quick to follow their lead. This includes playing peekaboo with children in the toddler room when they look under tables. Children laugh with staff, anticipating when they will see them. Children show an understanding of strategies that are implemented by staff to help them manage their behaviour, such as when children struggle to share toys. Staff ask children what they need to get and they reply 'a sand timer'. They use this as a visual prompt to help them understand how long they have to play with a toy before they need to pass it to their peers.

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

• The management team and staff implement a curriculum that is sequenced to help children progress in their learning. This includes supporting children to be independent. For example, staff give children in the toddler room small jugs to pour their own drinks. In the pre-school room, staff ask children to use knives safely to spread butter on their toast.
• Staff help children to learn about their feelings and emotions. For example, they ask them how they are feeling and why they feel this way during a self-registration. Children say that they feel excited to go on holiday. Staff read stories to children to help them make connections between colours and feelings, such as yellow for happy and blue for sad.
• Staff help children to understand how they can keep themselves safe. For example, they talk to children about standing still and remaining calm if bees come near them. Staff arrange for police officers to visit the children to discuss the importance of wearing their seat belts when they travel in cars.
• Staff offer children a range of nutritious snacks and drinks to help promote healthy eating. However, staff in the toddler room do not help children to routinely learn about handwashing and the importance of good hygiene practices to help prevent the spread of infection.
• Staff help children to develop a love of books. In the toddler room, staff ask children to lift flaps on the pages when they read stories. Children in the pre- school room are asked to remember and talk about what happens in their favourite stories.
• Early intervention for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities helps them to progress in their development. For example, staff work with other professionals and parents to identify individual strategies to meet children's specific needs.
• The management team supports staff well. Managers work alongside staff and discuss their interactions with children to help them to reflect on their practice. Staff attend training courses to help extend their knowledge of how to support children's learning. This includes building on their understanding of how to support very young children with their sensory development.
• Staff teach children about the world around them. For example, when children in the toddler room see a spider in the garden, staff use descriptive words, such as 'crawling', to help children understand what the spider is doing. This helps to build on children's developing vocabulary. However, staff do not support children to learn about their own and others' backgrounds and cultures. This will help children to reflect on differences and to understand what makes them unique.
• Staff implement rules and boundaries in the nursery and children know these. For example, when staff ask children what they need to do when they play under the canopy outdoors, children say that they need to use their 'walking feet' because they might fall over and bump their heads.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff in the toddler room to provide children with consistent opportunities to wash their hands to help prevent the spread of infection
• help staff to support children to understand their own and others' backgrounds and cultures, to help them to reflect on their differences and understand what makes them unique.