Youngstars Nurseries (Leigh)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children form strong bonds with the kind and nurturing staff. They confidently leave their parents and run into the pre-school, ready to start an exciting day. Staff greet children with smiles and hugs before they settle quickly at their favourite activities. Children meet their friends and, before long, they are happily playing together in the stimulating and safe environment.

Staff have high expectations and ambitions for all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They realise that some children were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and did not gain the social and communication skills they might have. To help develop these skills, children enjoy high-level interactions with staff, who model empathy and understanding. They help children develop strategies to help them form strong and respectful friendships. Children learn to overcome difficulties and successfully manage their own behaviour.

Children are highly motivated, engaged and focused when they play. They demonstrate perseverance and critical thinking skills when they build with the construction toys, stack bricks or make bird's nests in the play dough. They relax in the calm environment with staff who know them well. Children gain the skills they need to become successful learners, now and in the future.

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

• The new leadership team work successfully together to create a caring and supportive pre-school. The manager is a reflective and enthusiastic professional who confidently leads a team of equally dedicated staff to make positive changes to the environment and teaching. Staff understand her vision for continuous improvement and are incorporating new ideas into their practice. However, some teaching strategies, such as those around developing children's independence skills, are still to become fully embedded into all staff practice.
• All children, including children with SEND, benefit from a well-planned curriculum and make progress in their learning and development. Staff design stimulating activities and learning opportunities to support and extend children's interests and skills. They work well with parents and other settings that children attend to ensure continuity across children's care and development. Children are given time to practise and consolidate what they have learned.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on building children's literacy skills. For example, books are placed where children play, such as alongside the train set, to stimulate their interest. Children happily sit with staff while they read stories together. Staff develop themes and ideas from favourite books to help children understand plot and character. Children use props from stories to develop their own imaginative play. Children and parents love to borrow books from the pre-school's lending library to continue their learning at home.
• Staff value children's emerging writing skills and expertly develop their confidence to become future writers. For example, even young children spontaneously use notebooks to 'write' down their own ideas while they play. Staff proudly display children's 'writing' across the pre-school to develop children's growing sense of identity and self-esteem.
• Children enjoy exercise and physical activities, inside and outside, to develop their movement, balance and coordination. They enjoy dancing while they sing and following instructions to build pretend cars from large construction sets. Staff challenge children's abilities by providing paint and play dough to further extend their small physical skills.
• Staff speak clearly and give children new words to express their feelings or to describe their world. For instance, children look at pictures and learn the names of insects, such as 'dragonfly' and 'stag beetle'. Staff quickly identify children who have potential gaps emerging in their language skills. They work with parents and other professionals to swiftly put in place interventions to provide children with the skills they need to become successful learners, including when they go to school.
• Staff celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of the children. For example, children's families, homes and friends are reflected in photographs, books and toys. Children learn to care for and respect one another. For instance, they make sure everyone has a turn when they are cutting vegetables. They demonstrate patience and delight in each other's success at accomplishing the difficult task.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to fully embed new teaching strategies consistently in their practice to further extend children's learning.