Lamb Setts (Christchurch)

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff provide a welcoming environment for children and their families. The small, qualified team has high expectations of children's learning.

Staff place a priority on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development. They listen to children's voices and value the comments they make. Children are confident and keen to share their thoughts and ideas.

They learn that their opinion may be different from their friends. Children identify what tasks they wish to complete during the day. For example, they choose to clean tables before mealtimes and to help to tidy away toys.

This helps to give childr...en a sense of responsibility. Children have unique opportunities to care for and feed the nursery pet, 'Rocky' the mouse. This helps children to learn to respect living things.

Parents say that their children are 'happy and settled'. Children have positive relationships with staff. They show kindness and care for other children and form good friendships with each other.

Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. The manager and staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They work with parents and other professionals to identify targets to support children's individual needs.

Children are happy and demonstrate that they feel emotionally secure.

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

Staff provide children with opportunities that help to broaden the experiences children receive at home. They encourage children to be independent.

Children wash their hands prior to eating and pour their own drinks.Staff support children's mathematical skills. For example, they encourage them to count the number of children present during a group session.

Staff ask children to guess if there are more girls or boys present. This helps children to develop their counting skills and to make predictions.The manager works well in partnership with the host school.

For example, staff take children to attend special events, such as a Christmas nativity and sports day at the school. This helps children to become familiar with the school environment. The manager shares information about children's learning and development with teachers.

This contributes to consistency for children.Staff provide experiences that enable children to develop their understanding of the local community. For example, they invite people into the nursery to share information about their occupations, such as people from the Royal Navy, a librarian and parents.

Staff plan activities for children but also give them time to explore and investigate on their own. Children make good progress in their development and learn key skills in preparation for school. They are very sociable and enjoy spending time with their friends.

Staff provide opportunities for children to be physically active. Children pretend to be a dinosaur. They stomp their feet, put their arms behind their backs and pretend they have a dinosaur tail.

Staff talk to parents daily about children's achievements. They offer parents meetings to discuss their children's progress. However, staff do not consistently support parents to continue children's learning at home, such as to encourage children to develop a love of books.

Staff do not always gather information from all parents about children's prior learning and abilities when they first start, to help plan more precisely for children's learning from the outset.The manager and staff reflect on the provision. Improvements since the last inspection offer staff further opportunities to extend their professional development.

Staff attend training courses that help them to develop their understanding of how to support children's communication and language skills. For example, staff sing plenty of songs with children and they ask older children a good range of questions. This helps children to develop their speaking and thinking skills.

Children demonstrate good literacy skills. Older children talk confidently about the images they draw. They say that they have made a 'pterodactyl'.

Staff offer children nutritious snacks. They talk to children about what makes them healthy. Children say that healthy foods are 'carrots', 'tomatoes' and 'cucumber'.

Staff actively promote positive behaviour. For example, they ask children to hold hands and to sing a rhyme about 'hands are for helping'. Staff praise children when they use good manners.

Children behave well and are polite.Children show good imaginative skills. When they put chairs in a line, they say that they are 'going on a train'.

Children hand out train tickets to their friends and shout, 'All aboard.'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff attend child protection training.

They have a good understanding of the signs of abuse and where to report concerns about children's safety or welfare. Staff complete risk assessments of the indoor and outdoor environment before children arrive. They count children before they take them outside to play.

This contributes to children's safety. Staff gather information about who can collect children. They ask for photographs of people they do not know.

This ensures that children do not leave their care with a person unknown to their parents. This promotes children's safety.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: find out information from all parents about children's prior learning and abilities when they first start, to help plan more precisely for children's learning from the outset nexplore ways of offering parents suggestions and ideas about how they can continue to support children's learning at home, such as to develop a love of books.

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