Little Folks Day Nursery & Out Of School Clubs

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff provide children with positive interactions and help them to form strong attachments. Children and babies are happy and relaxed as they play, and explore with staff.

Staff supervise children well and are attentive to their individual needs.Children make good progress from their starting points. The manager and staff swiftly identify and address any aspects of children's development where they need more support.

This includes identifying where children's experiences have been restricted, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and planning opportunities for further enrichment. For example, they have adapted the learning env...ironment to provide babies with greater challenge in their physical development. This includes helping them to build their confidence to travel up and down ramps and experience travelling on a variety of wheeled resources.

Staff help children to assess risk and know what measures they can take to make activities safer, such as when children use a drill.Staff prepare children well for the next stage of their learning. Pre-school children are ready for the move to school.

They are confident and have good social skills. They play happily with their friends and learn about sharing, and taking turns. Babies enjoy facing each other at mealtimes and show interest in what other babies are doing.

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

The new manager has a strong vision for the future of the nursery. She closely monitors the quality of teaching and learning, and focuses on improving staff's professional skills. Recent training helped staff to identify how to fully use children's play interests to plan learning experiences.

New staff and apprentices say they feel well supported in their roles. The provider ensures that staff are deployed well to meet children's needs and to meet the legal requirements.An effective key-person system is in place.

Staff identify what they want children to learn based on their observations of children's achievements and good knowledge of each child. They plan a wide range of exciting activities that engage children well. However, learning intentions that staff identify are sometimes too broad and do not target children's learning precisely.

This means that, at times, children's learning is not focused as well as possible and staff overlook opportunities to extend their knowledge even further.Pre-school children concentrate well. They are curious and ask questions.

For example, they learn about gasses associated with volcanic explosions and ask thoughtful questions about these. However, staff overly direct some planned activities and slightly limit the opportunities for children to test out their ideas, and explore in their own way.Staff place a strong emphasis on helping children to develop their communication and language skills.

Babies copy the words and actions that staff use, and experiment with their own sounds. Staff help older children to expand the range of words they use and help them to understand the meaning of new vocabulary, such as 'neon, magma' and 'ultraviolet light'.Children behave well and staff are sensitive to their individual emotional needs.

They adapt their teaching well to help identify the most effective ways to help each child learn to manage their feelings and behaviour. Staff know the best way to distract a child and help to soothe them when they become upset.Parent partnerships are strong.

Parents are pleased with recent changes made by the new manager, such as the introduction of hot meals and the book lending scheme. Parents appreciate the communication they receive about the progress their children make.Staff follow effective hygiene routines to minimise the spread of infection.

They support children's good health well. Children enjoy the nutritious meals and snacks and learn about making healthy choices.Children progress well with their independence.

The manager and staff identify how to adjust daily routines to help develop children's independence. Toddlers learn how to scrape their plates at mealtimes and older children gain a sense of responsibility. They develop their understanding of environmental issues and what they can do to help.

This includes collecting their waste food to compost and learning about recycling materials.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff make careful risk assessments to check that the areas of the nursery used by children are safe.

They prioritise children's safety at drop off and collection times. The provider ensures that all staff are trained in the safeguarding policy and procedures. She checks that they understand their roles and responsibilities to keep children safe, such as following the mobile phone policy.

The manager and staff have a good understanding of how to protect children and understand the procedures to follow if they identify any concerns about a child's welfare. The provider follows robust recruitment procedures to ensure staff suitability.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: help staff to precisely identify what it is they intend children to learn from all activities to raise the potential for children's learning even further nincrease opportunities for pre-school children to explore and learn in their own way to provide them even greater challenge.