First Friends PDN

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Babies and younger toddlers enjoy their time at nursery.

They are confident in their surroundings and actively engage with the daily routine. Staff support babies and younger toddlers to do as much for themselves as possible. They readily wash their hands for mealtimes, put their shoes in the shoe rack, they are helped by staff to pour their own drinking water and they are learning to help tidy away resources.

Staff help babies and younger toddlers learn how to be safe. They encourage children to hold hands and take their time as they use stairs to access the different play spaces within the nursery.While older toddlers a...nd pre-school children have some positive learning experiences, staff do not always deploy themselves well enough during outdoor play.

The lack of interaction from staff at these times limits the opportunity to build on children's prior learning. For example, children who are quieter or less confident flit between activities while others wander around not sure what to play with. As a result, much of what children learn is incidental.

During lunchtime, some pre-school children become boisterous and display unwanted behaviour. They shout, leave the table to play and ignore staff requests to sit nicely. At these times the environment becomes chaotic, resulting in rising noise levels.

To this end, some children become upset. While some staff do initially attempt to address this, it is not pursued further which sees the unwanted behaviour continue.

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

Leaders and managers have taken a positive approach to addressing the weaknesses raised at the previous inspection.

They have developed staff practice to ensure the individual learning needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are met. In addition, managers have ensured the environment for babies allows more space for them to play and move freely.Managers recognise that different confidence levels of staff have resulted in variable staff practice across the pre-school room.

While regular meetings, staff supervision and dedicated time for training occurs, managers have not yet sharply focused on identifying individual areas for development. To this end, some staff are not fully effective in supporting children's learning outcomes.Staff help children's growing language and communication skills.

Babies and younger toddlers show delight as they sing familiar songs, eagerly joining in with the actions and words. They listen intently as staff read a story about a hen. Children take turns to lift flaps, trying to find where the hen is hiding.

Staff encourage children to identify what they can see in the pictures. As a result, children develop a love of stories which sees them readily access books to look at by themselves.Babies and younger toddlers behave well.

Staff encourage even the youngest children to use their manners and share toys with their friends. In contrast, some staff do not do enough to manage pre-school children who demonstrate unwanted behaviour. For instance, some children snatch toys from friends, purposely run their bikes into others, and push toys onto the floor.

This goes on for too long and when staff do intervene, messages are inconsistent. This does not help children understand what is expected of their behaviour.Staff know their key children well, including what makes them unique.

They determine appropriate next steps and understand how to embed these within children's play. However, at times, staff are not deployed well within the older toddler and pre-school room. For example, while children enjoy spending as much time outside as possible, many staff remain indoors.

This results in less staff being available to interact effectively with children. To this end, children who are less confident do not engage in meaningful learning and play.Staff plan activities for children to develop their small-muscle skills.

These activities help children practise the skills needed for early writing. Older babies work with staff, squeezing sponges to make bubbles and toddlers scoop up sand and use moulds to make shapes. Pre-school children build structures from small plastic bricks.

Staff encourage children to consider the shapes they need, when children explain they are making triangular shapes for the roof and squares for the windows. This helps support children's growing mathematical development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date implement behaviour management strategies, which support staff to be consistent in their approach, and which build on children's understanding of behaviour expectations 06/06/2024 deploy staff to ensure that they engage with all children effectively, to increase children's enjoyment and extend their learning.06/06/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove staff supervision, coaching and training to precisely identify individual areas of development and ensure staff have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.