Cliff Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive with their parents and are greeted by friendly staff who they are familiar with.

This helps children feel welcome. Children are confident and friendly. They ask the inspector her name and answer her questions.

They tell the inspector what they like doing and who they would go to if they were upset. Staff help children to understand how to keep themselves safe. They teach them how to use tools, such as a knife, safely and to hold onto hand rails when climbing up and down steps.

The key-person system works very well. Each key person has a buddy who knows the children they take care of as well as ...they do. This means if there are any unexpected staff absences children have someone familiar who takes care of them.

A lot of emphasis is placed on finding out about babies' home routines and every effort is made to maintain these. This helps babies to settle quickly. Staff teach children the importance of sharing, taking turns and helping others.

Babies are encouraged to pass toys to each other. Older children hand out food contributed by their parents to the senior members of the community during the harvest festival.

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

When babies wake up from sleeping, they get the cuddles they need to help them do this in their own time.

Babies explore, crawl, climb and toddle around. They chatter away in their own baby language as they seek out interactions from staff. This is acknowledged by staff who encourage them to continue with what they have to say.

Staff are committed and work exceptionally well as a team. Following the last inspection changes were made to how staff observe and assess children's progress. For instance, they are given time away from the care rooms to evaluate their observations and find out what children need to learn next.

A schedule for regular supervision has been introduced. Staff told the inspector that they feel valued and respected and that their workload has become more manageable.Managers monitor the quality of teaching and learning effectively and found a weakness in the teaching of literacy and mathematics.

They sourced extra training for staff to help them promote literacy and mathematics more successfully. However, although basic mathematics, such as early counting, is promoted throughout the setting, the programme for extending children's mathematical development even further is not yet consistently implemented.Children have very good social skills and demonstrate a real confidence in their physical ability.

They climb, jump, run and use large tyres to test their balance. However, the layout of the pre-school 2 room leaves limited space for children to move freely and the pathway in the baby room is restricted by the number of toys left lying around.Teachers are invited to meet the children who will be joining their school.

The key person provides them with information about children's development. Children are shown a school uniform and photographs of different parts of the school. This helps to reassure children as they prepare for their move on to school.

Children in each of the five care rooms help staff to select two favourite books for the term which are called 'Cliff's top 10'. One of these is a book about a bear hunt, which children eagerly act out when they go outdoors. Children retell the story and act out different actions, such as stomp, stride and roar as they search for the bear.

Children enjoy activities provided by other professionals, such as dance and lessons in Spanish. This helps to widens children's knowledge and experiences.Parents speak very highly of the staff who 'always have a smile on their face'.

Parents are provided with a few ways to find out about their children's development, such as an online system and parents' evenings. However, there is not enough focus on how parents can help their children to continue with what they are learning in the setting while at home.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders, managers and staff speak confidently about safeguarding and child protection issues. They attend regular training and are questioned about safeguarding daily. As a result, they have a robust knowledge and understanding of safeguarding, including wider issues such as radicalisation and extremism.

Staff are very clear about the procedures they need to implement should they receive an allegation against a member of staff, or feel a child is at risk. This helps to keep children safe. The recruitment procedure is robust.

For example, managers check qualifications, experience and seek at least two references. This helps to ensure that staff working with children are suitable.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: continue to monitor the teaching of mathematics so that it is consistently strong throughout the setting review how space is used in the baby room and the pre-school 2 room and how it can be used more flexibly to support children's physical skills nexplore ways to engage parents and help them to complement what children are learning in the setting so they make swifter progress.