Little Jems

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff ensure a warm and welcoming nursery for children. They understand and adhere to babies individual eating and sleeping routines. Children show they are happy and settled.

Children's personal, social and emotional development is well supported and they form good relationships with staff and their peers. Staff are good role models and have high expectations of children's learning and behaviour. Positive behaviour is encouraged and praised.

This results in children behaving well and they are eager to learn. All children are making good progress in their learning in relation to their starting points. Additional fundin...g is thoughtfully and carefully used to ensure all children and their families benefit.

For example, some funding is used for inviting other organisations into the nursery. These include dance teachers, a caring for animals organisation and early science projects. Partnership with parents is good and parents are kept well informed of their child's development and progress.

Parents are also invited to these extra-curricular monthly events. Children benefit from a stimulating curriculum which takes account of their next steps and also their interests. Staff work well with other professionals to meet children's individual needs.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. All children benefit from having access to a sensory room within the building, which stimulates their senses and promotes relaxation and exploration.

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

The key-person system is effective, overall, and all staff know the children in their care really well.

However, when allocating key-person roles, the provider does not always consider the experience or skills of staff, to best support children's individual needs. Staff-to-child ratios are always maintained and are above minimum recommendations when children have been identified as benefiting from extra support. This ensures that all children receive good adult support and attention.

Children's personal development is well managed. Staff provide good support with potty and toilet training. Children benefit from healthy and nutritious meals and snacks.

However, not all children are encouraged or supported to try new foods to promote their health and growth.Staff interact well with children and ensure they support children's development across all areas of learning. Staff are skilled at extending learning experiences.

For example, as the children have been learning about 'people who help us' a visit from the police takes place. This promotes children's understanding of the world.Children show a love of books and stories.

Staff help to embed what children already know. For example, they provide props and encourage children to explain the sequence of a story themselves. Some children refer to the displays on the wall to remind them of the order of stories.

This shows that children make good use of the environment and resources to aid their learning.Early mathematics skills are included in activities and the daily routine, including when children sort shoes and wellies into pairs before going to play in the nursery garden.Staff ensure that children have various opportunities to express themselves creatively.

For example, as well as different craft activities, children participate in music and movement sessions. They also name and talk about how different instruments are used. Children also use their imagination well to be a caterpillar in a cocoon and also to move like a butterfly.

Children's physical development is well promoted. Babies have space to develop movement and walking skills. They also participate in different sensory experiences, such as with paints and they manipulate different materials that make sounds.

Older children practise dancing, jumping, hopping, standing on one leg and swaying from side to side when involved in action songs and rhymes. This helps to promote their core strength and balance.The setting is well managed and effective systems are in place to support staff's well-being.

Staff have a positive attitude towards continuous professional development and have access to ongoing training and development courses, including music and movement and outdoor play training. Leaders are skilled at supporting staff to evaluate activities and children's learning. For example, they discuss that for children who prefer to be outside, some activities would be better completed outside, or after the children have been out to play, to reduce distractions.

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: consider the key-person system to ensure that every child's care is tailored to meet their individual needs, for example, by making the best use of staffs' experience and skills support all children to try a more varied range of food, in order to promote good health and nutrition.