Farthings Nursery Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are very happy, settled and secure. They are building a strong sense of belonging and good bonds with their key person, as well as other members of the team.

Children have many opportunities to be physically active and have access to fresh air. They enjoy using their increasing balance skills as they ride wheeled bikes in the garden area. Children have the space and freedom to run around and this also helps them to manage simple risks in their play.

Children are curious and engaged learners. Staff plan for many exciting activities and opportunities to build on what children already know and what they would lik...e them to achieve. Children make their own choices in their play and this helps them to build confidence in their own abilities and develop skills for the next stage in their learning.

Children behave well and are starting to understand how to manage and recognise their own emotions. They use good manners under the effective role modelling of the staff team. Children enjoy sharing their experiences with others.

For example, bringing shells from a recent trip to the beach to discuss at circle time. This helps children to feel valued and respected. Children are independent in their own self-care and this helps to support their eventual move on to school.

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

Partnerships with parents are well established and are a particular strength of the nursery. Parents are very complimentary of the care their children receive and the amount of communication shared. This has helped them to feel valued and a large part of their children's achievements.

Parents comment on how the nursery has been 'instrumental' in preparing children for their move on to school.Children are building a love of books and stories. They are able to recall parts of a favourite story and characters they remember.

Children are imaginative and creative. They enjoy playing 'I spy' with their friends or telling each other jokes. Older children are starting to recognise letters contained in their own names and younger children mark make with paints and create patterns in shaving foam.

This helps children to start to use different tools to build on their hand-to-eye coordination.Staff help to promote children's communication and language to expand on the range of vocabulary that they use. For instance, as children go on a dinosaur hunt, staff talk about them being 'camouflaged'.

Children respond by using the magnifying glasses provided to try to spot them in the herb bed.The manager is reflective in how she evaluates areas of the nursery to improve. She recognises the importance of involving children, parents and staff to help identify further suggestions for change.

Staff benefit from regular supervision meetings to help improve their practice. However, professional development is not precisely planned to help staff to continuously raise their knowledge and understanding further.Children use early mathematics in their play.

They show an increasing understanding of solving problems they may encounter. For example, the realise they have to pour more water to move the ducks down drain pipes. Younger children count items as they play and pretend to sell ice creams in the role-play area.

This helps to increase children's understanding of real-life experiences, such as using money.Staff help children to learn about the importance of being healthy. For instance, they discuss how drinking water when it is hot helps them to stay hydrated.

Children enjoy reading stories about having healthy bones and good foods to eat to help them to grow. However, the snack time routine is very structured and this means that children are disrupted in their play and learning if they do not want to eat at this particular time.Children make good progress, including those who receive additional funding or with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Staff carefully check the progress that children make. They are quick to identify potential gaps in children's development to provide them with additional support if required. Next steps are planned to support each child to make their best progress.

Children who excel in areas of their development receive additional challenges to keep them fully engaged and highly motivated in their play and learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a good understanding of how to protect the children in their care.

They are confident in how they would identify potential signs and symptoms of abuse and the procedures they would follow to report concerns. This helps to protect the welfare of children. Staff use thorough risk assessments to help to keep children safe when at the setting.

The manager follows robust recruitment and supervision processes to ensure staff working with children are suitable to do so. Staff are aware of how to use the whistle-blowing policy if they should be concerned about any practice they observe within the team.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: precisely plan for more professional development opportunities to raise staff awareness and understanding even further review the snack routine to ensure this do not unnecessarily disrupt children's play and learning.