Owlets

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Leaders and staff promote children's safety and well-being effectively. They build secure relationships with children and take their responsibilities to keep children safe very seriously, such as through conducting regular head counts.

Wherever possible, key persons tend to the children's individual care needs. All children, including new babies, settle very quickly and feel emotionally secure. They arrive happily and are greeted warmly by the kind and caring staff.

Staff are positive role models and support children to listen, follow instructions and develop good social skills.Leaders and staff plan a broad and ambiti...ous curriculum that takes account of children's prior learning. Overall, children receive good support to help them build on their knowledge and skills and prepare them well for the next stage of their learning.

Children are keen to take part in activities and proudly and confidently show their work to the staff, who praise them with enthusiasm. Babies are particularly happy and contented. They explore the play areas and develop their imagination through pretend play.

Staff tend to their needs gently and sensitively. Toddlers develop a love of stories. They often take books to adults to request they read to them, and they listen with interest, talking excitedly about the pictures.

Pre-school children benefit from lots of opportunities, and support and encouragement from staff, to develop their physical skills, particularly outside. All children make good progress in their learning.

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

Leaders and staff are committed to providing high-quality care and education for all children.

Staff know the children well. They assess their development accurately and identify appropriate next steps in learning. Staff are quick to recognise when children may benefit from additional support.

They form strong partnerships with parents and other professionals to meet the children's individual needs.Staff follow children's interests and use these, along with information from their observations and assessments, to plan enjoyable learning experiences. Children are inquisitive and curious.

Pre-school children ask what unfamiliar words mean, such as 'hydration', and babies explore the sounds that different instruments make with interest. During busier times, staff do not consistently support the quieter and less confident children as well as they could to build further on their knowledge and skills.Leaders provide training opportunities for staff to promote their professional development.

However, leaders do not monitor staff's practice as effectively as they could to support staff to deliver the curriculum to the highest possible quality.Staff support children's communication skills effectively and extend their vocabulary. For example, they use signing alongside speech, burst into song spontaneously while playing with children to model language and introduce new words when they interact with children.

Staff give children the time, space, encouragement and confidence to follow their own ideas. For example, pre-school children select the craft resources they want to use to make a poppy and are exceptionally proud of their finished creations. Toddlers dance and sing along to music.

They develop their strength, balance and coordination to move in different ways.Staff promote children's literacy development well. Pre-school children have good opportunities to practise their early ready and writing skills.

They match letters to sounds, begin to recognise written names and write party invitations as part of their imaginative games.Children play alongside and with each other cooperatively. Pre-school children work together to solve problems independently.

For example, they realise they can manage the tape dispenser more easily if someone holds it still while another child pulls the tape.Staff have completed behaviour management training and have used some of the strategies they learned to help children to understand right from wrong. This has had a positive impact on children.

Their behaviour is good, such as when helping staff and one another to tidy away the toys.Parents praise the setting highly. They value the sensitivity and flexibility that staff provide when children move up to the next room.

Parents feel well informed about their children's experiences. Staff work well with parents to provide consistency in children's care and learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff understand their responsibilities to keep children safe. They are reflective and conduct ongoing risk assessments of the premises to ensure they are safe and secure for children. Leaders and staff show a good knowledge of child protection matters and know how to respond promptly and appropriately when concerns arise about the welfare of a child.

Staff deploy themselves effectively to enable them to supervise children appropriately. All staff are first-aid trained, which allows them to respond swiftly to any accidents and incidents.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen the monitoring, support and coaching for staff to help them to deliver all aspects of the curriculum to the highest quality to extend the children's learning even further provide more consistent and targeted support for the quieter and less confident children during busier times to engage them more effectively in their learning and build further on their skills and knowledge.