Little Ones Honiton

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The nursery is committed to supporting the children and families of the local community and works closely with families to understand their needs. Children settle quickly and build strong relationships with their key person.

Babies beam as their key person asks them if their nappy needs changing and involves them throughout the process. They feel safe and secure within the nursery. Very good provision is in place to support children with specific needs.

Staff work closely with parents and external agencies to ensure that all children have full access to their entitlement for early education. They undertake training fro...m specialists to enable them to meet children's medical needs and work closely with parents to understand children's particular routines and learning.Staff create interesting and stimulating environments that fully support children in becoming active, independent and curious learners.

Older children enjoy digging to find stones and worms in the outdoors, while younger children explore squash, leaves and oats with amazement and joy. They freely access a wide range of resources to support their explorations. Children behave well.

They are learning to work together and share the resources. Children know the nursery routines well and join in enthusiastically throughout the day. All children recognise the 'special song' and help to tidy away at certain times of the day.

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

The manager has a secure view of staff skills. She regularly observes staff and provides both group and individual feedback to help them continually improve their practice. Good support is in place for staff's ongoing well-being and staff comment on how much they value this.

The manager helps staff to develop aspects identified for improvement, such as providing preparation time and regular coaching.Staff make very good use of systems to check the progress of groups and individual children. They take action to address areas where children's progress is not as rapid as they would like, to help them maximise their potential.

For example, following last term's review, staff are successfully strengthening the programme for mathematics. They use many daily opportunities to engage children in size, number and shape work. Children confidently use numbers.

They have fun identifying who is smaller or taller and are able to accurately work out simple problems such as how many plates they need for their 'play family'.The staff support children's early language skills well. They talk through children's play so that all children can make sense of what they are doing and learn to use speech to describe their ideas.

Staff model language well and make good use of opportunities to introduce new vocabulary. Children are confident speakers. They ask for help when required and happily initiate conversations with other children as well as adults.

Staff place clear emphasis on encouraging children's early literacy skills, with many opportunities throughout each day for both shared and independent storytelling. Children enthusiastically act out stories using props to mimic the animals in the story. They show a developing understanding of rhyme and are learning to recognise their own names as they find and post cards before their snack.

Staff prepare children well for their eventual move to school.Children's move between rooms is carefully timed to match when they are developmentally ready. They benefit from many short visits to the new room to enable them to become familiar with the space and different routines.

Staff work closely together to share information about children's routines, interests and well-being. However, they share less information about children's next steps for learning to support their development even more effectively. Children are confident.

They are learning how to play with other children, share and be independent due to secure support from staff.Parents value the work that staff do and have strong relationships with them. They receive regular information about children's development and opportunities to contribute to these.

However, systems to support parents to build on and extend children's learning at home are not yet fully effective.Staff develop the quality of teaching and practice. For instance, recent training has led to the introduction of the 'curiosity cube', which is used to introduce children to new ideas.

Children animatedly use their senses to feel, smell and describe a wide range of autumnal items. Staff use the experience to introduce new vocabulary such as 'spiky', 'smooth' and 'rough'.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The company has robust systems in place for safe recruitment, induction and checking the ongoing suitability of staff. All staff attend regular safeguarding training and keep their knowledge up to date. Staff have a secure knowledge of the signs that indicate a child may be at risk of neglect, abuse or being drawn into extreme behaviours or ideas.

They are confident in the correct actions to take if they have concerns, including how to escalate concerns if required. Staff implement policies robustly to ensure that the environment remains safe and they supervise children well at all times.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove the systems for sharing information with staff about children's next steps for learning when they move rooms, to support their individual learning even more effectively develop systems to support parents to build on and extend children's learning even further at home.