Limehurst Little Learners

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children thrive in this friendly and relaxed nursery and develop very strong relationships with staff. They greet staff with enthusiasm and seek them out when they are upset or overwhelmed.

Staff know the children well, which helps them to form secure relationships. Children display a strong sense of belonging and positive attitudes to learning. For example, they move confidently around the room to explore the environment.

Children play cooperatively together and invite staff to join their play.Staff plan a wide range of learning experiences around children's current interests and learning styles. For example, younger ...children express their creativity as they use paint and stamps to create pictures.

Older children spend time in the construction area. They build tracks and towers and link this with a story. Children make good progress in their learning and development.

Staff have high expectations of children. They encourage them to be independent with self-care tasks, such as handwashing and wiping their nose. Staff are positive role models.

For example, when children struggle to regulate their behaviour, staff are quick to intervene and support them. Children are supported to play cooperatively together. For instance, they learn to take turns and share with their friends.

This supports children to behave well. Staff always keep children within their sight and hearing. This ensures children's safety and well-being.

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

The staff team provides a broad curriculum that includes a wide range of stimulating learning experiences. Staff use their knowledge of children's individual needs and progress to move them on in their learning and development. However, occasionally, staff do not focus learning experiences precisely enough to fully enhance all children's learning.

The manager is keen to ensure that all children succeed. This includes those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The manager has recently undertaken SEND training, which has helped her to provide more targeted support for children.

The manager now focuses on children's speech and language development. Children receive the support they need in a timely manner.Staff are skilled storytellers.

They help bring stories to life as they read to children. They capture children's interest. Staff build on children's growing vocabulary and comprehension.

As a result, children remain focused and engaged. Children develop a real love of books and spend extended periods browsing through them independently.Children engage in pretend play with joy.

They pretend to buy items and make meals in a role-play shop. Staff join in with children's play. They support the children's play by asking open-ended questions.

Staff encourage the children to think. Staff involvement creates an environment that helps to develop children's creativity and imagination.Staff promote children's physical development.

Children have ample opportunities to access the outdoors. They experience a range of activities that support their physical development. For example, children skilfully pedal on the bicycles outside.

Children have good pencil control and show strength in their finger muscles. They use this to draw pictures and learn to write their names. This supports children's developing small- and large-muscle skills in preparation for later learning.

Children understand numbers, counting and size through planned learning. For example, they count and weigh counters. Staff introduce mathematical language, such as 'heavy' and 'light', as children fill and empty containers in the sand.

This helps to develop children's early mathematical skills.Staff encourage children to become independent in their self-care, ready for their move to school. At snack times, children follow good hygiene routines.

They self-serve their food and pour their own milk or water, with little support. Staff supervise children well and are quick to support reluctant eaters. Staff offer praise and encouragement to help children develop their independence with self-care routines.

Arrangements for the supervision and training of staff are good. The management team carries out regular room observations and supervision sessions to monitor staff's practice. However, some weaknesses in staff practice have not been fully addressed.

For example, on some occasions, staff are not attentive to all children's individual needs. However, the management team is keen to implement clear, targeted plans to support individual staff to help ensure consistently high-quality care and education across the nursery.Parents speak positively about the nursery and the staff.

They say that their children enjoy attending and that staff are friendly. Parents enjoy the daily feedback and updates about their child's progress. These positive relationships support the overall emotional well-being of children.

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: build on staff's knowledge of the curriculum intent so that they are clear about the skills and knowledge they want children to acquire during their time at the nursery nenhance staff supervision arrangements and provide targeted support for individual staff to precisely address minor inconsistencies in their practice, to promote their ongoing professional development.