Southampton University Early Years Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

All staff ensure that children are happy, secure and ready to learn in this diverse nursery.

Children form strong bonds with staff and quickly immerse themselves in their play and explorations. They are enthusiastic learners. For example, babies love starting their day outdoors.

Toddlers confidently follow all daily routines, including washing their hands before snack and helping to load the dishwasher afterwards. Children love books and avidly listen to stories, sitting close to staff. Pre-school children experiment with real objects in the sand tray.

They collaboratively discuss different ways to fill and em...pty containers with their friends. Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Children mimic staff's good qualities, showing sensitivity and respect towards others.

Leaders constantly evaluate the quality of the provision. They identify the need for a stronger focus on early language and mathematical concepts throughout the early years centre. Staff are fully aware of this and skilfully support children's communication and language skills.

For example, babies enjoy participating in singing songs with actions that match the words. They quickly lie down in preparation for the 'sleeping bunnies' song to start. Toddlers hear mathematical terms from staff, such as 'full', 'empty' and 'half-full' when they use spoons to fill bowls with oats.

Pre-school children compare various lengths of tape measures and use appropriate words, such as 'longer' and 'shorter'. Children make good progress in their learning and development, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who speak English as an additional language.

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

Leaders are reflective and committed to continual improvement.

For instance, they create a curriculum that builds on children's natural curiosity. Children play with real and authentic objects. They have ample opportunities to practise their previous learning, such as when they make up their own games.

Older children pretend to type on laptops and say they are busy working. They notice the letter and number keys that relate to letters in their name and their age.Staff place a high importance on sharing books with children and extending this to parents.

Children love to share books they know from the early years centre, at home. They develop strong hand muscles through sensory activities that support their controlled mark-making skills. Even the youngest children show impressive use of various writing tools.

Older children show great coordination as they label their own creations with their names. This helps to develop children's early literacy skills well.Leaders and staff work closely with external professionals to implement targeted interventions successfully.

This support benefits children with SEND. The special educational needs coordinator is instrumental in overseeing children with SEND and accurately monitors their progress. She is quick to make referrals for additional support and advice and keeps parents fully informed.

Additional funding for children with SEND is used effectively to buy interesting resources.Staff recognise the importance of raising children's awareness of the variety of cultures and languages at the nursery. Children hear words from different languages that represent the same object, such as a car.

They hold interesting conversations about the similarities and differences between the Italian, French and English words. Children demonstrate how proud they are of their home languages.Children learn to adopt healthy lifestyles.

They have daily opportunities to build their stamina as they run, jump and balance with increasing agility in the fresh air. Children learn to manage their self-care needs from an early age, such as feeding themselves, with staff always close by. Toddlers and older children know that eating fruits and vegetables is good for their bodies.

This helps children learn ways to stay fit and develop good habits.Leaders regularly monitor the quality of staff's practice. On the whole, they suitably support them with professional development opportunities to improve their existing knowledge and skills.

For example, individual staff access online training to learn how to engage boys in more creative activities. However, there are some gaps in staff's knowledge when planning activities and the best ways to implement them with children. In these cases, the planning is not precise enough to build effectively on children's existing learning.

This is particularly evident in the pre-school room.Parents highly praise the education and care their children receive. They report that staff keep them well-informed about their children's progress.

Parents use many of the suggestions and ideas that staff share with them to further develop their children's learning at home. This helps to support children's continual development. Parents are impressed with their children's progress, especially in their speech, confidence, independence and social skills.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance the support for individual staff to interact more effectively with children, and to understand how to use what they know about children to plan more precisely to meet their needs.

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