Children’s Place Barkerend

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happily, separate confidently from their parents and greet key staff with hugs and a smile. Children feel safe and know that adults will look after them.

They start by having a strong bond with their key person. Quickly, they form positive relationships with other adults. All staff are good role models and help children to learn to manage their feelings and behaviour.

Children grow into confident and independent learners. They are eager to participate in a range of activities that foster their enjoyment of learning. For example, babies show curiosity as they enjoy sensory experiences, such as spreading ...shaving foam on the table using their hands.

Toddlers relish having their feet covered with paint. They explore the paint further with their fingers and paintbrushes. They make marks with the paint on the paper and observe what happens when they mix colours together.

Children's language development is fostered very well. Staff consistently narrate children's play and learning and spend time talking and listening to them. They introduce new words, such as 'squelch' and 'squeeze', encouraging children to repeat them as they make their own play dough.

Staff help children to develop their physical skills. For example, they support babies to practise their walking and negotiate ramps. Older children learn how to use scissors to cut paper and hold a pencil to practise their early writing.

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

Staff personalise the curriculum to suit every child. Children follow their interests. They choose what they want to do and select their own resources.

As a result, children are highly engaged. They concentrate for appropriate periods of time. When staff are working with children, they notice what children can do and what they need to do next.

This information is used well to plan learning activities that draw on children's interests and ensures children are excited by the experiences on offer.Staff support children's communication and language development well. They help babies to build a wide vocabulary and support them well as they begin to combine words to form sentences.

Older children use language confidently to express and share their ideas. For example, they describe how they can make slime by adding water to the flour and then can change the colour by adding powder paint.Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported.

This includes the help of bilingual staff and close liaison with parents to keep everyone informed about language development.Staff use positive methods to support and manage children's behaviour and are good role models. Children are respectful of each other and demonstrate the ability to take turns and share.

Staff develop ways for children to learn about the wider world, for example through outdoor play, participation in forest school sessions and opportunities to visit residents in the local care home.Staff have strong partnerships with parents. They work closely with parents of new children to establish children's starting points and needs.

Staff continue to keep parents well informed about their child's development. Parents appreciate the useful ideas and activities staff provide them with, such as a lending library. They comment that they are highly satisfied with the quality of the provision.

However, partnerships with other settings are less effective. For instance, children's progress and experiences are not consistently shared between the nursery and staff at other settings children attend.Overall, staff support children's early mathematical skills well.

They weave counting into children's play and teach children mathematical language, such as 'big' and 'small'. However, occasionally, some adult-led activities that focus on recognition of numbers exceed children's experiences and level of understanding.The manager holds regular supervisory meetings with staff and identifies ways to help to support their professional development.

This helps to ensure their teaching practice is consistently good.The manager regularly seeks the views of parents, children and staff. As a team, they reflect well on the quality of the nursery and have a clear vision for the future.

They identify areas to develop to ensure continuous improvement. For example, they plan to enhance even further the already good opportunities for children's outdoor play experiences.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

All staff have a good understanding of safeguarding procedures and know how to identify a child who may be at risk of harm. Staff are aware of the procedures to follow should they have concerns about a child's welfare. They are alert and vigilant to the wider safeguarding issues.

Clear policies, procedures and risk assessments are in place and implemented effectively by staff to ensure children play in a safe environment. Staff are deployed effectively to make sure children are always supervised well.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance the already good practice in teaching early mathematics by ensuring that activities consistently take account of children's prior learning experiences and levels of understanding strengthen partnership working and communication links with other settings children attend, so that children benefit from a shared understanding and common approach to supporting their progress.

Also at this postcode