Little Stars Early Years

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enter the setting with smiles on their faces.

They are clearly happy and enjoy their time at the nursery. Children have fun playing together and with staff, and feel safe and secure. They use their imaginations to play the role of a shopkeeper.

Children learn to share and take turns with support. Staff encourage them to use the electronic till and serve fruit and vegetables to their friends. Children behave well and develop positive social skills.

Children remain engaged in activities and enjoy solving problems. For example, children discover that their sandcastles do not stand up with dry sand. Staff... use effective questioning techniques to help children work out how to solve the problem.

Children add water and cheer with delight when their sandcastles stand alone. Children continue their learning as they add numbered flags to their sandcastles. Staff support children to put their flags in the right order.

Children count and recognise numbers to five.Children enjoy many opportunities to be active and develop their physical skills. They run freely around the garden, holding onto coloured ribbons.

Children laugh with excitement as they watch how their ribbons move in the wind. Children and staff work as a group to make music and dance together on the outdoor stage.

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

Children's literacy skills are developing well.

Older children are encouraged to write letters from their name and form letter shapes. Children develop a love of reading. They have free access to a range of books, which they look at with staff and independently.

Young children thread hoops onto pipe cleaners. Furthermore, children spend long periods of time exploring paint and creating pictures. This helps to develop children's early writing skills.

Staff are very caring, sensitive and nurturing. They respond to children's needs. For instance, young children who are unsettled are quickly provided with cuddles and reassurance.

This helps to promote children's emotional well-being.Partnerships with parents are good. Staff gather children's starting points from parents.

This means that they know what children know and can already do, when they start at the setting. Parents know what their child is learning, even though they do not come into the setting. Staff share information through an online system with parents.

This helps them to understand how children's learning can be further supported at home.Staff teach children about their local community. For instance, children visit local shops and have had a recent visit from a police officer.

However, staff provide fewer opportunities for children to extend their understanding of differences of communities and cultures beyond their own.Staff teach children about hygiene and how to promote their own good health. Most of the children can independently manage simple tasks for themselves.

However, occasionally staff chop children's fruit and wipe their runny noses before encouraging them to try to do these things for themselves.Staff know the children they care for very well. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported effectively.

Staff liaise with speech and language specialists, and health visitors to put intervention plans in place quickly. As a result, children are making the best possible progress.The manager has a good understanding of the strengths of her staff team and where they need further support and mentoring.

She ensures that all staff have opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge. Staff attend regular team meetings and one-to-one supervision sessions. The manager places a huge emphasis on staff's well-being.

Staff comment they feel very well supported by the manager.Staff use their knowledge of children's interests and development to shape a curriculum that is exciting and extends their learning. Activities are linked closely to children's development.

Staff adapt their teaching to meet the needs of individual children.Staff encourage children to remember the rules in nursery and to be 'kind' towards their friends. Children are beginning to manage their own feelings and behave well.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers and staff complete regular safeguarding training. They have a good understanding of the signs that indicate a child may be at risk of harm or neglect.

Staff know how to share these concerns to help keep children safe. All staff are confident of the procedures to follow, should an allegation be made against a member of staff. Furthermore, staff can recognise signs that a family might be vulnerable to radicalisation.

The management team has robust recruitment procedures. Staff complete daily checks and risk assessments to ensure the environment is safe for children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to consistently develop children's independence and self-help skills nincrease the diversity of experiences and resources, to help build on children's understanding of the differences of people and communities beyond their own.

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