Clover Leaf Childcare Limited

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy their time at the setting.

They arrive happily and staff greet them with warmth and affection. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Babies form strong and trusting bonds with the staff in the room.

If upset, they seek out staff for cuddles and soon settle. Children are very well behaved, polite and caring towards their friends. For instance, they comfort one another with a pat on the back or lead younger children to the bathroom when asked to do so.

Children gain good physical skills. For example, they move their bodies into different animal shapes during a yoga session and laugh with gl...ee when they stretch their arms and legs. Staff help children to gain an understanding of the traditions of other countries and cultures.

For instance, they talk about Chinese New Year and Chinese dragons, and eat Chinese food for lunch. Children in the main playroom line up patiently to serve their own food from the lunch table. They scoop the food with confidence and carry their plates back to the table.

Children are becoming increasingly independent in their self-care skills. Children benefit from plenty of praise from staff for their achievements. This helps raise their self-esteem and boosts their confidence.

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

The manager has a clear vision for the setting and regularly reviews the service to help identify areas for continual improvements. She has worked hard and has taken effective action to improve the quality of the provision since the last inspection. For example, staff in the baby room are now deployed consistently and have received additional training for working with babies.

Babies are very well supported and receive continuity of care, which helps them feel comfortable with staff.Staff work in partnership with parents and regularly seek up-to-date information about what their children's interests are. Staff use this information well to engage children in activities and extend learning and development opportunities for them on an individual basis.

For example, staff know that children like to play with building blocks and take the opportunity to teach young children their colours while in the construction area.Staff encourage children's vocabulary well. They provide ongoing narration, hold conversations and introduce new words regularly.

For example, staff introduce concepts such as 'floating' and 'sinking', and discuss how water 'freezes' and ice 'melts'. Children have great fun solving how to get objects out of the ice. Staff praise their ideas and encourage them to try out their theories.

The manager has implemented new and improved processes for staff supervision meetings. Staff say they feel supported. However, the sessions do not focus enough on staff's professional development to help raise the quality of teaching consistently for all staff.

Staff work closely with the adjacent primary school to ensure that children have a smooth transition into Reception class. They attend stay-and-play sessions that the school delivers for children due to start in Reception.The setting is based within Langley Children's Centre and has the local library on site.

The manager and her staff report that this has great benefits for the parents and children attending the setting. Staff have instant access to support agencies, such as social workers, early support teams, health visitors and midwives. This enables staff and parents to gain instant advice and guidance for a variety of issues and concerns at the earliest opportunity.

Children are gaining skills necessary for future learning and readiness for school. For example, they are developing early writing skills. Children use small pegs to pick up cotton wool balls and this is helping to develop their pincer grip.

Older children take great pride in being able to identify and draw the initial letters of their name on the interactive board. Staff expand their knowledge and make the sounds the letters represent. Children can name other objects with the same initial sound, for example, 'e' for elephant or egg.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager ensures that staff fully understand how to recognise signs and symptoms that may cause concern about a child's welfare. This includes providing safeguarding training at appropriate levels.

The manager reinforces staff's knowledge through regular questionnaires that test their understanding. Any weaknesses are followed up with both in-house and external training. As a result, staff are vigilant and confident about how to act on their concerns.

They know who to report to, including if they are worried about the conduct of other professionals. Recruitment processes are robust and appropriate checks are completed thoroughly.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop staff supervision arrangements even further and focus on supporting staff's professional development to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high standard.

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