First Steps Moorlands Children’s Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happy and thoroughly enjoy their time at this welcoming setting.

They form secure relationships with the kind and caring staff. Staff know children well and use their understanding of each child's interests and development to create a well-sequenced curriculum that builds on their existing knowledge and skills.Staff support children's communication and language skills effectively.

They incorporate simple sign language into everyday interactions and share this with parents for use at home. Babies demonstrate their understanding of signs to communicate with staff. For example, they use a sign to indicate ...that they have finished their snack.

Staff provide opportunities for young children to engage in group song times to develop key social skills and further progress their communication and language development. Children's behaviour is good. They are respectful to their peers and take turns to choose which songs to sing.

Children develop strength in their bodies and enthusiastically join in with actions as they pretend to bounce up and down on a tractor.Pre-school staff are aware of children's interests and design challenging learning experiences to help children make significant progress in their learning. For example, children show eagerness to learn about volcanoes and enjoy exploring books made by staff to discover the location of volcanoes around the world.

They demonstrate their understanding and confidently state, 'We know volcanoes erupt when the lava comes out.'

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

The leadership and management team has made a number of improvements since the last inspection. The team works closely to monitor the quality of practice in each room and ensure staff know their responsibilities and professional goals.

Staff feel supported in their roles and strive to improve. All staff have attended training to further their teaching skills. This has enhanced the enjoyment of teaching and learning in all rooms.

Staff understand the importance of the use of children's home language to support their language skills and sense of self. Staff greet children in their home language each morning and use key words to support their understanding throughout the day. All children have opportunities to hear the languages spoken at home by their peers.

They eagerly push buttons to hear greetings in the variety of languages spoken by children at home. Children become confident communicators.Staff use assessments to monitor children's progress effectively and identify areas needing further support.

They promptly refer children to external professionals, such as speech and language therapists, to address and close gaps in learning. Staff encourage parents to practise skills at home and they provide bags with specific activities and resources to support children's learning outside of the setting.Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) effectively.

Children with SEND benefit from high-quality, individualised support and care during their time at the setting. This ensures they make good progress from their starting points and are well prepared for the next stage in their learning.Children demonstrate awareness of healthy routines and wash their hands before mealtimes.

They have good table manners and confidently use large spoons to independently serve themselves lunch. Staff gently remind children to concentrate as they pour themselves a drink.Staff support children's mathematical knowledge effectively.

They encourage children to identify numbers as they follow a recipe card to make dough. Older children apply their mathematical knowledge as they accurately add two numbers together, using their fingers to count and find the correct answer.Overall, staff deployment is effective.

Staff actively move around and engage with children during play to support and extend their learning. However, in the baby room, staff deployment is less consistent. There are times when babies are not always engaged in meaningful learning activities.

This is because, on occasions, most staff are busy with routine activities, such as nappy changing and settling babies to sleep.Staff create an inspiring learning environment for children. They set up engaging play activities in all rooms to support children's eagerness to learn.

In the pre-school room, staff manage noise levels by ringing a bell to remind children to use quieter voices. However, noise levels in the baby room are, on occasion, high. This can, at times, interrupt children's learning in the adjoining toddler room.

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 further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: deploy staff in the baby room more effectively to further promote the youngest children's engagement in meaningful learning activities reduce the noise levels in the baby and toddler room to better support children's engagement and listening.

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