Willow Childcare & Training

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff have high expectations for every child. Children in the pre-school room enjoy playing superheroes. Younger children have a lovely time splashing in puddles.

They giggle and laugh as they jump. The setting has recently changed to helping children to play with and learn from real-life objects, so children know what it is like to handle real fruit and vegetables. Children can smell them and feel the true weight of an object.

Children use real pots and pans and crockery as they play. Their pouring skills are excellent. Children pour water down the guttering and move ducks down the water.

They are very motiva...ted and eager to join in because activities and experiences build on their unique interests. Children feel emotionally safe and secure. They behave well and play cooperatively together with their friends.

To help with sharing, children use large sand timers, so they know when it is their turn next. Children concentrate as they use different tools when cutting up an apple, such as a peeler, corer and knife. Children enjoy listening to stories.

Staff encourage children to use props to hold their interest as they listen. The manager has started sending books home with the children. This helps children to reinforce their reading with parents.

Staff offer a warm welcome to children and parents and they exchange relevant information effectively.

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

Staff use effective assessment to provide children with a well-planned curriculum which considers their interests and next steps. There are good systems in place to monitor children's progress and to quickly identify any gaps in their learning.

Staff work closely with parents and professionals to provide effective support to help children catch up.Staff know their key children very well. Staff evaluate effectively the impact of the activities on children's progress.

This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are learning English as an additional language. All children make good progress from their starting points.Staff identified that some children had never been on a bus, so they took them on the bus to the local library, where they became members.

Children learn about their local community as staff take them out to explore the area. They visit the local shops and school to use the grounds, to see the animals and to use the more challenging physical play equipment.The dedicated and committed manager works well with her staff team to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole provision.

They have regular meetings and together they reflect on practice and identify areas for further improvement. Training has a positive impact on experiences for all children. However, the practice of staff observing each other, to raise the quality of teaching to a higher level, is not yet fully embedded.

Parents speak very highly of the provision and state that their children love attending. Staff begin to build positive relationships with parents. They gather information on children's starting points as children attend their flexible settling-in visits.

However, although the setting has some positive systems in place to involve parents in children's home learning, this does not involve all parents.Staff support children's understanding of how to live a healthy lifestyle. They provide children with a healthy range of snacks.

Children have regular access to the outdoors. They also engage in regular physical activities. Staff support children's understanding of suitable hygiene routines.

For example, they have a nose-wiping station in each of the rooms. This helps to support their growing independence and gives them confidence in their own abilities.Children are well behaved and show consideration to each other and the staff.

They benefit from staff being positive role models and being consistent in their management of children's behaviour.Staff provide a stimulating environment that fosters children's curiosity through a wide range of natural and interesting resources. Children can move toys or equipment around the play areas depending on what they want to play with.

Staff work effectively to develop children's communication skills. They model language well with children and read stories and have fun with them to further develop their language skills. Younger children begin to understand about measuring as they make their own play dough.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff understand their responsibility to safeguard children. They have a good knowledge of the signs and symptoms of abuse.

Staff know the procedure to follow should they have concerns about a child or if an allegation is made against a member of staff. They regularly update their training to support their safeguarding knowledge, which includes training around wider safeguarding concerns. This helps to promote children's safety and well-being.

The manager follows safer recruitment procedures to ensure the suitability of staff and takes steps to assess their ongoing suitability. The setting is secure and has key locks on all entrance and exit doors to keep children safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop further the arrangements for staff's professional development and encourage the strongest staff to share their expertise with others, to help elevate the quality of teaching throughout the setting to an outstanding level nextend further the good opportunities to help all parents to gain ideas to support children's learning at home, promoting children's good progress to an even higher level.

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