Hopscotch Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children thoroughly enjoy coming to nursery. They greet their friends happily as they arrive and are excited to sing the welcome song.

Babies form close bonds with consistent staff. They follow familiar routines from home, which helps them feel safe and secure. During the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, staff have worked hard to adapt procedures and routines at the nursery, such as how children are dropped off and collected.

This helps to reduce the spread of infection and reassure parents that their children are safe.Children behave well. Older children confidently negotiate with their friends, agreeing who can use t...he scissors first at the play dough table.

Younger children begin to join in with songs and listen quietly when staff read them stories. Staff have high expectations of children's abilities and encourage them to be independent. Children learn to pour drinks at lunchtime and to take off their own shoes.

They benefit from a broad curriculum both inside and out in the garden. Outside, children are eager to explore. They practise their physical skills as they scramble up the climbing frame or balance along a beam.

Staff quickly identify any gaps in children's learning and provide additional support where needed. They make effective use of available funding to help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve well.

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

Children develop good relationships with staff and each other.

Staff support children's emotional well-being effectively. They build children's self-esteem and confidence by providing warm reassurance and lots of praise. Children begin to talk about their feelings and use the emotions board to let staff know if they are angry or sad.

They quickly learn to follow the daily routines that help keep them healthy and safe. Children remember when they need to wash their hands and they line up quietly to go outside.Staff find out about what children already know and can do before they start at the nursery.

This helps them plan for children's learning from the beginning. Staff build on children's language skills particularly well. From their first day, younger children hear new words as well as familiar songs, which supports their communication skills.

In pre-school, older children articulately express their ideas and have long conversations with their friends.Children take part in a variety of interesting and stimulating experiences. Older children are inspired when they grow strawberries and tomatoes from seed.

They check the plants carefully every day to see if the fruit has turned from green to red. They understand that this will mean it is ready to eat. However, activities are not consistently of the highest quality throughout the nursery.

At times, some staff are not sure what they want children to learn from activities or why they have been planned. This means that, on occasion, children's experiences do not successfully build on their skills and knowledge or challenge and inspire them, to help them make the best possible progress.The experienced early years teacher provides effective support for older children as they develop the skills they need for early writing and reading.

Children benefit from small group or individual sessions, as well as daily access to books, pens and paper. However, at times, activities and resources that staff provide for younger children to encourage early writing are not well matched to their age or stage of development.Managers are committed to providing high-quality care and learning for all children.

They monitor staff practice closely and regularly observe them to help them develop their skills. In response to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, managers have adapted the support offered to staff, in order to prioritise their well-being. This includes additional welfare meetings and access to counselling.

Children enjoy interesting outings, for example a visit to a French market to buy some food. This helps to develop their understanding of different communities and broadens their experiences from home. Staff encourage children to share the things that make their families special, so that everyone learns to value and respect each other.

Children are proud to use their home language as they name the colours in a 'traffic light' game.Parents speak positively about the care that their children receive at nursery. They say that staff keep them informed through their child's online learning journals and daily conversations at drop-off and collection times.

Staff regularly offer ideas so that parents can continue their child's learning at home.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers follow robust recruitment procedures to help ensure that all staff are suitable to work with children.

All staff complete a thorough induction so that they understand their role and responsibilities. They understand how to recognise and report any child protection concerns, including wider safeguarding issues such as 'Prevent'. Managers provide regular training to make sure staff knowledge is up to date.

Staff supervise children vigilantly at all times. They conduct daily safety checks and continually assess the environment for risks, to make sure that children can play safely.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to focus more precisely on what they want children to learn from planned activities, to help all children quickly gain new knowledge and skills develop staff's understanding of how to consistently plan and provide stimulating experiences to support younger children's early writing skills, that are well matched to their age and abilities.