Early STEPS Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The manager and staff provide a warm and welcoming environment for children.

Children confidently make independent choices from a good range of quality resources and play materials available to them. They demonstrate high levels of interest to explore, investigate and find things out. For example, older children learn about which animals can eat conkers and why they are poisonous to others.

Children are motivated and enthusiastic to learn. Children's physical health and well-being are a high priority for staff. They provide healthy, nutritionally balanced meals and snacks that children enjoy.

Children have fre...e access to fresh air and physical activity during outdoor play. Staff also provide calm, comfortable spaces for children to rest and sleep. The nursery has recently achieved Sheffield Healthy Early Years Status for their work.

The manager and staff team are committed to providing an inclusive environment where all children and their families are welcome. They work together effectively to support children's learning. This means that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), receive the help they need to make good progress.

Additionally, the special educational needs coordinator has completed a 'SEND' award to enable her to signpost children effectively to access early help.

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

The manager takes the happiness and well-being of staff members seriously. This means that the majority of staff have worked at the nursery for a long time and are highly experienced.

The manager provides staff with feedback on their performance through filmed observations of their interaction with children and supervision sessions. She identifies training to support staff development and measures the impact this has on staff practice and meeting children's individual needs. The manager is aware of the need to focus her support on newer and less-experienced staff to ensure that the quality of teaching is consistently raised to the highest standard.

Children are making good progress from their starting points. They are challenged to make continual progress through effective tracking and monitoring of their development by staff and management. Staff make focused and individual plans for children's learning.

This ensures that any gaps in children's learning are closing and that learning is extended for the most able children.Children are encouraged to form secure attachments with their key person and other staff caring for them. Children are happy and settled in nursery.

They are warmly welcomed by enthusiastic staff and enter their playroom with confidence, demonstrating that they feel safe. Staff help children to develop their communication and language skills. They narrate on activities, model good conversational skills and introduce new vocabulary.

Babies and toddlers repeat familiar words and phrases and older children show confidence in speaking to staff and their friends.Children thoroughly enjoy the wide range of activities provided and show curiosity, concentration and enjoyment during their play. The manager and staff use additional funding well.

For example, they provide one-to-one support, tailor staff training and obtain extra resources. However, staff do not consistently provide as good support for children who demonstrate a developing interest in technology.Staff are good role models and give children clear messages about the expectations for their behaviour.

They encourage children to share, take turns and be kind to one another. Staff understand that some children struggle to stay within expected boundaries. They work with individual children and parents to promote a consistent approach.

Staff also attend training specifically in behaviour management to ensure that they can provide the best support to children.Staff give high priority to building good relationships with parents from the start. Parents share information about their children's experiences and what they know and can do during settling-in visits to the nursery.

Staff keep parents up to date each day through an online system, sharing information about children's ongoing care and the progress they are making. Parents comment very positively about the quality of the care and education that their children receive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and staff place a high priority on making sure that children are safe and this is well managed throughout the nursery. Staff complete regular safeguarding training, including training on wider safeguarding issues, such as the 'Prevent' duty. Their knowledge of child protection is refreshed regularly in staff meetings.

Staff know the signs and symptoms to look for and the procedures to follow if they have any concerns about a child's welfare. Staff recruitment is robust and new staff receive a thorough induction to ensure that they understand their role and responsibility to protect children and keep them safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: focus even more on supporting newer and less-experienced staff in their professional development to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high standard nextend and support children's interest in technology.