Smilers

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is inadequate

Weaknesses in staff's knowledge of safeguarding mean that children's safety and well-being are compromised. Staff have a poor understanding of how to promote a safe environment or implement a challenging curriculum.

Activities are poorly resourced, which impacts negatively on children's learning and enjoyment. The support for children's behaviour is variable. For example, staff do not help children to learn to share toys and take turns.

However, staff are kind to children. They role model the use of good manners, and children routinely say 'please' and 'thank you' in their interactions.Leaders do not ensure the c...urriculum builds on what children know and can already do.

For example, pre-school children have the entire contents of their lunch boxes unwrapped and emptied out ready for them to eat until the term before they start school. This does not provide children with the time to learn and practise new skills or help develop children's communication and language to ask for help from an adult if they need it. These are essential skills for ensuring success in their next stage of learning.

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

There are gaps in the safeguarding knowledge of some staff. For example, they do not understand the roles of safeguarding agencies, latest government guidance about safe sleep arrangements for babies and knowing how to respond to concerns regarding unexplained bruising in babies and infants. Not all children are placed to sleep on an appropriate flat surface.

This does not ensure children's safety.The lack of oversight by the provider means that weaknesses in the day-to-day management of the nursery are not addressed. Gaps in staff knowledge are not identified.

Staff who hold lead roles in the nursery do not fulfil their responsibilities successfully. The provider does not ensure that staff coaching, support or training is precisely targeted to improve their practice. This impacts on the quality of care and education that children receive, which is inadequate overall.

Staff do not provide children with the education and support they need so they can learn to understand the rules and expectations at the setting. Staff do not act when children climb on furniture, including at times when other children are trying hard to listen and join in with quieter group activities. This can lead to accidents and recurrent incidents, particularly for the younger children.

However, pre-school children generally show much higher levels of understanding of behaviour and engage well with the resources available.The environment for two-year-old children is chaotic and noisy. This interrupts children's learning and impacts on how some new children settle when they start at the setting.

Despite this, staff know their key children extremely well and spend time understanding their unique family circumstances. Through home visits and regular meetings, they gather and regularly update a full range of key information relating to children's dietary requirements and health needs. This helps parents feel confident that staff can meet their children's daily care needs.

Staff do not supervise children effectively to ensure their safety during outdoor play. Risks in the environment go unnoticed as children are able to play in unclean water that has gathered in unchecked resources, and garden gates to hazardous areas are left open. This does not demonstrate staff's understanding of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring children's safety.

Leaders and staff have effective arrangements to work with staff at the school located on the same site. This helps ensure pertinent information regarding older children that attend the setting after school is shared where appropriate. In addition, the school provides nursery children with access to safe and suitable outdoor space should staff choose to use this.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.There is not an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must: Due date improve the safeguarding knowledge of staff, including those with designated responsibilities for safeguarding 28/02/2025 support staff to understand and implement a clearly sequenced and ambitious curriculum for all children, ensuring a strong focus on promoting children's communication and language 28/02/2025 support staff to consistently implement the setting's rules and boundaries so that children are clear on the expected level of behaviour 28/02/2025 implement safe sleeping arrangements for children and babies in line with the latest government safety guidance 17/01/2025 ensure the premises are safe and suitable for children, particularly the outdoor area, by implementing robust and effective risk assessments to ensure children and staff are not exposed to risk.

28/02/2025