Little Foxes Childcare and Education for Children and their Parents

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settled, including babies who are very new to the nursery. Before starting at the nursery, children attend settling-in sessions with their parents.

This helps them to establish early relationships with the staff and their peers. Staff follow children's individual routines in line with their needs. Babies sleep when they need to and develop warm relationships with their key person.

Babies show they feel comfortable with the staff. For example, they climb onto staff member's knees during play and seek out staff for cuddles. Older children confidently chat to visitors and tell them all about what th...ey enjoy most about the nursery.

Children feel safe in this welcoming nursery.Leaders plan and provide an ambitious curriculum. Staff place a strong focus on promoting children's independence and developing their communication and language skills.

For example, older children practise wearing school uniforms and tidy resources after using them. Younger children learn how to pour drinks by themselves and wash their hands on their own. This promotes children's independence and self-awareness to look after their belongings.

Babies explore books with their key person. They point at pictures in the storybooks and copy as staff make animal sounds. Older children listen intently as staff tell them what is for lunch, introducing new words such as 'couscous' and 'tagine'.

This helps to expand their growing vocabulary. Staff complete regular assessments to help minimise any gaps in learning. As a result, children make good progress from their starting points.

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

Leaders are passionate about their vision for the nursery. They reflect on practice and strive for improvement. The manager and long-standing staff team have a positive approach to providing the best outcomes for children.

They implement advice and guidance from the local authority and other agencies to enhance staff's knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and practice. Staff say they feel well supported in their roles.Babies are developing a sense of identity and belonging.

For instance, staff encourage them to look at their reflection in mirrors. They use words to describe babies' features, such as eyes, ears and nose. Babies laugh and point to their nose as they look in the mirrors, attempting to copy words that staff use.

This helps to support babies with their early speaking skills.Stories are paramount to the nursery's curriculum. Children actively get books out and look at the pictures independently.

Staff engage children further as they read stories with excitement and enthusiasm. Furthermore, leaders promote 'story bags', where children can take books home to enjoy with their families. Children are developing a love of reading.

Occasionally, the set routines followed by staff do not consider the needs of the older children. For example, after mealtimes, 'quiet time' is promoted for all children. Children lay on blankets to listen to an audio story for an extended period.

At these times, some children become restless, distracting their peers because they are not interested in this activity.Staff encourage children to be independent learners and give them lots of opportunities to explore and experiment using different materials. For example, older children participate in dry food play.

Staff successfully encourage children to make predictions on how many scoops will fill containers, and they introduce mathematical concepts such as 'volume, depth and similarity'. Children work together to test their ideas of which is 'smaller' and 'bigger'. As a result, children become confident to use mathematical language in their play.

Overall, children behave well. Older children demonstrate a good understanding of their own and other's emotions. They are beginning to regulate their own behaviour and build strong friendly relationships with each other.

For instance, during their chosen play, they listen and respect each other's ideas, waiting for their peer to finish speaking before they start. Babies learn to value each other's space from an early age, and staff sensitively support them to share resources. Staff step in when they see younger children's unwanted behaviour.

However, they do not always consistently use the behaviour management strategies that are in place, and children's learning can be disrupted.Partnership with parents is strong. Parents are extremely complimentary about the care and education that the staff provide their children.

They are happy with the progress that their children make. Leaders and staff work hard to build positive relationships with the parents. They provide them with a wealth of information.

For example, one leader has taken additional courses to support families with neonatal babies or breast-fed babies, preparing these families for nursery life and promoting home visits for the transition into the setting, particularly around feeding and attachment issues.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager ensures that staff undertake safeguarding training and provides regular support to help them understand their duties in relation to safeguarding.

Staff are very knowledgeable about how to keep children safe. Staff know the signs to look out for in children and their wider families. They know what to do if they have a concern about a child's safety and well-being.

Additionally, staff know what to do if they have a concern about a colleague's conduct. The manager follows robust recruitment procedures to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: norganise quiet times more effectively so that they accommodate children's needs more successfully nensure behaviour management strategies are consistently used by all staff throughout the setting.