Shama Women’s Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The nursery is a valuable asset to the local community. Children, including those for whom English is an additional language, make good progress in their learning and development.

They benefit from a dedicated team of staff who have high aspirations for every child. Children are gaining skills that will provide secure foundations for their future learning. They are happy and relish the opportunities that are made available to them within a safe environment.

Children are provided with activities that provoke their curiosity and desire to learn. For instance, children show great pleasure in exploring the 'garden centre' ...that staff have created for them. They discover that daffodils have a unique smell and delight as they confidently share this experience with one another.

Children are supported by staff to behave appropriately for their developmental stage. They are learning to share their toys and take turns in their play. Staff encourage children to consider the impact that their actions have on others.

Children are encouraged to listen and follow instructions. Staff are good role models to children. They are calm and consistent and praise children frequently.

This helps to support children's emotional well-being.

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

Staff have a good understanding of the need to ensure that children have a broad range of opportunities available to them. They skilfully identify gaps in children's life experiences and consider ways to help develop children's knowledge and enrich their lives.

For example, staff provide children with daily outdoor experiences where they can be physically active and develop an awareness of the changing seasons.Staff monitor and track children's development to identify potential gaps. They offer children a curriculum, covering all areas of learning, that is in line with their interests.

This helps to ensure children are engaged and motivated by future learning opportunities.Staff work hard to support children's language skills. They talk to children as they play.

Staff implement effective measures to ensure that children who do not speak English at home are well supported. When required, they are able to communicate in children's home languages and offer visual aids to further assist children's understanding.Staff promote children's mathematical development.

They refer to the 'big' and 'small' pieces of fruit and vegetables that children competently cut for their snack.Staff interact very well with children. They show an interest and pleasure in children's play.

However, on occasions, staff do not allow children sufficient time to consolidate their learning and to think through responses to their questions.Staff use activities to help children develop an understanding of healthy living. For example, children enjoy listening to a story about a hungry caterpillar.

Staff provide children with the food that the caterpillar enjoyed. They help children to understand that some of the food must only be eaten in moderation, for instance, cupcakes.Staff get to know children and their families exceptionally well.

They gain valuable information from parents to help them meet children's individual needs and care requirements. This significantly contributes towards how quickly children settle and to the close attachments that they develop with staff.Partnerships with parents are firmly established.

Parents praise staff for their care and kindness. They say how much their children love coming to the nursery. Staff provide ongoing support to parents but do not yet provide them with precise and focused suggestions of how they can continue their children's learning at home.

Staff work well with outside agencies and professionals. They regularly attend area meetings to ensure that they have a good overview of the needs of the community that they serve. They are developing good links with other settings that children attend, including schools that they move on to.

This helps to ensure that children's care and learning is consolidated and continuous.Staff are very well supported by the manager. Careful consideration is given to supporting the well-being of staff.

Staff receive regular supervision meetings. This helps to identify future training needs to improve teaching and the overall quality of the practice even further.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and staff demonstrate an excellent knowledge of how to ensure the welfare and safety of children in their care. They have a thorough understanding of the signs, including extremist behaviour, that could indicate a child is at risk of harm. Staff attend training on a regular basis to make sure that they are fully aware of the procedure to follow should they have any concerns.

Children are closely supervised at all times. The manager caries out risk assessments on a daily basis to ensure that potential hazards to children are minimised.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nextend further the support for staff to help them recognise when to allow children time to consider their learning and think through responses to questions provide parents with more focused and precise suggestions of how to support their children's learning at home.

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