Little Faces Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children of all ages benefit from a highly nurturing, stimulating and engaging nursery environment.

Staff know all children very well and use their interests to provide them with a broad range of exciting experiences. Due to this, children are busy, motivated and eager learners and quickly gain the skills needed for the next stage in their education. Children are very happy, safe and secure and develop a strong sense of belonging.

They form close and trusting bonds with the caring and dedicated staff team. The large, adventurous garden is at the heart of the setting and children delight in exploring, investigating and ...discovering outdoors. They develop particularly strong physical skills as they use challenging equipment, such as climbing walls and bicycles.

Staff have high expectations for children overall and support their learning well. Babies learn to crawl, walk and talk from an early age and show great confidence in their explorations. Toddlers particularly enjoy sensory play, such as feeling the insides of pumpkins, and older children very much enjoy imaginary play.

They are learning to respect and consider the views of their friends and work together well to act out storylines, such as superhero adventures.

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

The ambitious and passionate manager is committed to giving children the best start in life and has high standards for the quality of the nursery. She works closely with parents, staff and children to evaluate children's experiences and make further improvements.

Together with her experienced deputy managers and highly qualified staff, she has recently developed the outdoor provision. They have also introduced a new baby unit, which gives babies a self-contained, safe and calm space to develop their early skills.The manager supports staff practice well, for example, through supervision meetings and staff observations.

However, the professional development programme is not as varied and effective as it could be. For example, staff's teaching skills and the effectiveness of some daily routines are not consistently of the highest quality.Staff observe, assess and plan for children's learning precisely.

They use their in-depth understanding of what children know and can do to guide their experiences. All staff join in with children's play sensitively and encourage good progress in all areas of learning. Pre-school children show strong perseverance and enjoy challenges, for example, when making their own paint, counting how many children are in today and writing their name.

They gain particularly good control over equipment, such as when cutting paper with scissors and moulding dough into imaginative creations.Staff working with babies and toddlers are very attentive to their needs and help children to explore a wide range of enjoyable experiences. Toddlers enthusiastically dig the mud in the garden, showing a keen interest in nature and what might live under the soil.

Babies delight in watching as staff blow up balloons and excitedly chase them as they are let go around the room. They settle very quickly into nursery life and staff closely follow their home routines to help ease this transition.The manager supports her staff's well-being sensitively and there is a good team dynamic.

However, there is scope to offer further support to ease staff's workload to help them fulfil their roles even more effectively.Staff support children's language development very well across the whole nursery and use highly effective strategies. Subsequently, babies learn and use new words quickly, toddlers begin to use simple sentences and older children confidently express their thoughts and views.

Children of all ages thoroughly enjoy joining in with familiar songs and listen intently to a wide range of stories. Younger children happily sit on staff's laps as they turn book pages and older children confidently count down from 10 as they sing number songs.Parents value the personal care their children receive and are very complimentary about the nursery.

They appreciate taking home recommended books to read to their children, such as to support them when new siblings are born. Staff give plenty of guidance on how to support further learning at home and communication is strong.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and staff regularly update their safeguarding knowledge through training, discussion and staff meetings. They know the signs to look out for that children's welfare may be at risk from abuse, including neglect and extreme views. Staff know who to contact should they have a concern and understand the importance of working together to monitor attendance and changes of behaviour.

They vigilantly provide a safe and secure environment for all children. All staff are trained in paediatric first aid.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: noffer even further support and a more varied programme of professional development to help raise the quality of staff practice to a consistently outstanding level work even more closely with staff to help manage their workload and ensure all staff feel highly supported in fulfilling their roles.

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