Shining Stars Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are welcomed into this inclusive nursery, where they develop and learn together harmoniously.

Staff help children to gain knowledge and skills that support them well for their future learning. For example, staff effectively build children's language by singing songs and rhymes. Toddlers learn new words, such as 'spider' and 'bus', as they play with puppets that match the nursery rhymes taught.

Older children take weekly trips to the local library and attend swimming lessons. This gives them wider experiences that support their early education. The free minibus pick-up and drop-off service enables all children ...to attend.

This is especially helpful for those children, who may not otherwise be able to access the nursery. Children enjoy attending the nursery. They explore the environment with big smiles on their faces, demonstrating that they feel safe and secure.

Leaders and staff get to know children and their families well from the start. This helps secure strong bonds. As a result, staff can identify any gaps in children's development.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are supported to make progress. Children engage positively in their learning and demonstrate kind and friendly behaviour. Children play alongside others calmly.

Children occasionally fall out, because they do not understand the need to share toys. Staff are quick to model to one another how teach children to negotiate and regulate their behaviour. Children learn to relate to others and compromise.

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

Leaders have designed a curriculum that builds on what children know and can do. For example, babies are encouraged to play with large discs, toddlers are supported to use glue sticks and pre-school children make marks with pens. As a result, children develop their manipulation and control over time.

Staff provide high-quality experiences for communication and language. There are opportunities for children to learn new vocabulary and language structures as they make chapatis. Children talk about how they will cook the chapatis on a gas stove and make links in their learning, exclaiming, 'I am making them for a party!' Mathematical skills are taught.

Staff model to young children how to count objects in everyday activities. Older children are taught language related to size and are challenged to work out what two numbers are needed to make 11. Children are well prepared for the next stage of their education.

Children develop a range of independence skills at their time in the nursery. Toddlers scrape their plates after mealtimes without prompting and pour their own water from a small jug. Older children are learning to manage personal hygiene tasks, such as wiping their own faces.

Children learn about their own and other cultures. Staff teach some prayers in Arabic and talk about the festival of Diwali. Children are learning about themselves and others.

For example, leaders provide paints that represent all skin colours to promote discussions about similarities and differences. Children are beginning to understand diversity.Outdoors children have the opportunity to develop physical skills as they move around, ride scooters and practise their balancing skills.

However, leaders and staff do not carefully plan and provide exciting and challenging outdoor learning opportunities, which support other areas of their learning. This limits the learning for those who prefer to learn outdoors.The forward-thinking manager works in partnership with other settings and external agencies.

Staff liaise with local schools to discuss the key skills that children should gain before leaving the nursery. This information is used to plan the curriculum to help children become ready for their transition to school.The provider and manager enable effective performance management and training for staff to help improve their practice.

This has improved aspects of teaching. For example, staff caring for babies have accessed training to develop their interactions with the youngest children. However, this approach is not used for senior leaders to ensure the right areas for development, such as the outdoor provision, are identified and swiftly addressed.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Children are kept safe from harm. The premises are clean and tidy.

Food and snacks are served hygienically preventing the spread of infection. Staff are aware of the procedures to follow should they be concerned about the welfare of a child or the behaviour of another adult in the nursery. All staff demonstrate their understanding of who to report their concerns to, both in and outside of the nursery.

Leaders implement safer recruitment procedures. The minibus used to transport children is appropriately insured and maintained, which helps to keep children safe on their journeys to and from the nursery.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop the curriculum to support children's learning outdoors, across the seven areas of learning and development nextend the established performance-management system to the most senior leaders, so that accurate self-evaluation drives continuous improvements.