Little Birches Nursery and Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy, confident and independent.

They enjoy their time in the safe and secure indoor and outdoor learning environments. Children gain good social skills and build meaningful friendships. They play happily in group play and listen to each other's ideas, such as when they role play together.

Children gain a good understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles. For instance, they talk about the differences of healthy and less healthy foods at mealtimes. Children confidently follow good health and hygiene rules and talk about the benefits of exercise and keeping hydrated.

Staff build on childre...n's ideas and interests well. For example, children who were excited about transport went on to learn about different modes of transport and made their own giant model of a bus. Children communicate their ideas with confidence.

Staff support children to develop good speaking and listening skills. For example, they consistently ask them challenging questions and provide them with enough time to think and then respond. Children gain a good understanding of other people's similarities and differences, and the setting is diverse and inclusive.

Children enjoy learning words in other languages, such as French and Swedish.

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

Staff establish secure and trusting relationships with children. They get to know their individual personalities well.

Children have a good sense of belonging, positive well-being and self-esteem.Staff build and maintain positive relationships with parents and keep them involved and informed in their children's learning. For example, staff encourage them to regularly share their children's achievements from home.

Staff routinely share helpful tips with parents, such as new activity ideas that they can enjoy at home together with their children.There are good opportunities for children to develop their imagination. They enjoy a wide range of role play and become different characters to bring their imagination alive.

For instance, children are excited to be a shop keeper.Children gain good physical skills. They confidently negotiate obstacles, and balancing and climbing equipment, such as balancing beams.

All children explore different ways that they can move. For instance, the enjoy regular musical movement and yoga classes.The manager and staff evaluate their practice together effectively.

At the end of each day they discuss how well the day's events and activities engaged children in their learning. Staff use their findings to support their future activity plans. The manager closely monitors the quality of care and education that staff provide.

She observes them interact with children daily and provides helpful feedback to support their future performance. Overall, children are motivated and interested in their learning opportunities. However, staff do not always deploy themselves well to ensure that they engage all children in their learning quickly.

All staff are keen to keep up to date with new early years information and build on their skills and knowledge even further. They attend training beneficial to their practice. For example, they have learned about the different ways that they can positively interact with children.

Overall, children are polite and are kind to each other. They know what is expected of them, such as during changes in routines. However, staff do not consistently support children to fully understand the consequences of their actions and teach them how to behave more maturely.

Staff establish positive partnerships with other early years professionals. This helps provide children with a positive and consistent approach to their shared care and learning experiences. For instance, they regularly share children's achievements with staff at settings that they also attend.

Staff have a good knowledge of the curriculum and all areas of learning, which they implement well with motivating resources and activities. Staff ensure that they provide all children with the skills they need to succeed and make good progress. This includes those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have good knowledge and understanding of the safeguarding and child protection policies. They know how to protect children's welfare and keep them safe.

Staff know who to contact to seek additional advice and how to report and follow up on any potential concerns. Staff complete and monitor thorough risk assessments which cover all aspects of practice, including trips and outings to the park and woodlands. Children participate in regular fire drills.

They learn how to keep themselves and others safe in the event of an emergency. For example, they know how to exit the setting quickly and calmly.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build on children's understanding of the consequences of their actions to enhance their good behaviour even further review and improve the deployment of staff to enable children who need it to receive support to engage in learning opportunities as quickly as possible.