Little Pioneers Nursery & Pre-School, Rose Hill.

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff create a warm and welcoming environment. Children are greeted with smiles and kind words.

Children settle well and show they feel safe and secure. Staff are realistic in their expectations of children's behaviour. They know that children need help and guidance as they learn to understand and manage their emotions.

Staff help children understand that everyone feels sad, cross or overwhelmed sometimes. The effective support that staff offer children as they navigate these emotions results in children who behave well for their age and are able to consider the feelings of others.Leaders have developed a curriculum th...at is suitably ambitious for all children.

They quickly identify children who may need extra support to make the progress of which they are capable. This enables support to be put in place as needed to ensure that these children progress well in their learning. Staff understand the overall curriculum intent.

As well as helping children make progress with their social, communication and physical skills, staff are especially successful at helping children play purposefully and imaginatively. For example, staff model for children how to take on the roles of doctors and ambulance drivers using available resources. Children are then able to extend these games themselves, developing not only their imagination but also skills they need to be successful learners.

For example, children develop their concentration and learn how to take account of other people's views and opinions.

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

Leaders have successfully developed staff's skills in supporting children's language development. Staff consistently help children learn new words and practise their conversation skills.

Staff working with babies focus on key words and phrases that help young children make links between the words they hear and the things they see and do. Older children have lots of opportunities to hold back-and-forth conversations with staff.Many of the learning experiences staff offer children are well-matched to their stage of development.

However, sometimes staff do not fully consider how to ensure that activities precisely focus on what children most need to learn next. For example, babies are sometimes offered mark-making resources that are better suited for older children. At these times, children find what is asked of them too hard, and teaching is less effective than at other times.

Staff teach children to do things for themselves very well. Starting with babies, staff teach children a range of practical skills that enables them to become more and more independent. The success of this approach is seen in how well older children use cutlery, serve their own food and put on their own coats.

Staff offer children an inviting range of activities. However, sometimes staff focus their attention on children who are confident to approach them. They do not always recognise when children are less confident to do so and who would benefit from more adult interactions to engage in meaningful learning.

Staff welcome children warmly to activities and interact in ways that maintain children's interest well. This encourages children to persevere and helps them enjoy their learning. For example, babies show real delight in water play.

Staff successfully encourage them to keep trying as they chase bubbles and splash noisily.Staff are attentive to children's care needs. This is especially evident in staff who look after babies and very young children.

They follow, wherever possible, sleep routines from home. They help babies settle to sleep and recognise when they are not yet ready for a nap, adapting their routines accordingly. Throughout the nursery, children show good levels of well-being and that they thoroughly enjoy their time at nursery.

Parents find leaders approachable and staff helpful. They appreciate the thorough handovers and feel that staff know their children well. Staff are very successful at helping parents understand how children's care needs have been met.

However, current arrangements for sharing information are less successful at helping parents understand fully what their children have been learning. This impacts on parents' ability to build further on children's learning at home.Staff speak positively about working at the nursery.

Leaders have put in place an effective programme of professional development for staff. They have successfully helped staff grow in confidence in their roles as educators. This focus has led to a staff team that plans and delivers a curriculum that helps ensure children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning journey.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nidentify more precisely what children most need to learn next to ensure that activities and resources are more closely matched to children's current stage of development support staff to recognise and respond when children are showing they would benefit from more adult interactions to extend their learning build on warm partnerships with parents to help them develop a secure understanding of what their children are learning to enable them to further support learning at home.