The Toddler House

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are remarkably happy and highly motivated to learn. They are warmly greeted by caring and nurturing staff, who know them very well. Children feel safe and secure.

For example, they confidently explore their outdoor learning environment on a bike. They peddle around to complete a wealth of activities, such as planting seeds. Children are enthusiastic to share and play cooperatively with others.

For example, they invite staff to participate in a group game and their utmost priority is to that ensure everyone has a turn.Staff listen to children to understand what experiences they need. For example, when children ...have never had a picnic, they receive opportunities to make their own sandwiches and eat outdoors.

This helps to broaden their experiences. Children benefit from sensitive key-person relationships. Staff help babies to develop a love of books and engage them in imaginative experiences.

For example, babies enthusiastically respond to a range of puppets. They show an excellent understanding of how to care for the monkey puppet as they pretend to feed it some food.Children have a wealth of choice in their routine.

For example, toddlers have an option to whether they want to use the potty or toilet. Children confidently discuss their personal preferences, and staff value their choices. Children receive high levels of praise for their efforts and enjoy receiving a high five from staff or a star to add to their 'star jar' for their achievements.

These positive interactions actively contribute to children's confidence in their self-care routines. Children display highly positive attitudes for toilet training.

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

Children display outstanding behaviour and attitudes to learning.

They have responsibilities to set up activities and they have a strong desire to help. Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour, and they provide a rich learning environment that positively impacts children's well-being. Staff read children stories that significantly enhance their understanding of their own emotions.

They select purposeful books when children face difficult situations, such as bereavement and parent separation.The manager and staff operate a child-centred approach. This means children's outcomes and well-being are the focus when staff make decisions for the curriculum.

The manager and staff confidently reflect when faced with barriers in children's learning. For example, when children needed support with their listening and attention, staff prioritised additional funding to hire a Tai Chi instructor. Children developed their physical skills and their attention.

Children's interests and next steps feed into the curriculum. Staff create visual assessments of children's learning. This supports all staff in identifying any developmental gaps they need to focus on.

The special educational needs coordinator is highly skilled. She works collaboratively with staff to ensure learning is achievable for all children, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Together with the manager, staff evaluate their practice to ensure that children's learning is sequenced and they make good progress from their starting points, especially in their speech and language.

The nursery ethos is embedded in staff practice. The ethos focuses on healthy lifestyles and ensuring children learn through hands-on experiences. For example, staff introduced a real crab to children to help them to develop their understanding of nature.

On occasion, staff do not adapt their teaching. At times, when children are fully absorbed in their play and learning, staff move them on to other activities too soon. This slightly interrupts the flow of their learning.

Children benefit from high levels of parent involvement. For example, for those children who speak English as an additional language, staff ask parents to help assess their child's speech and language development. This helps staff to evaluate children's knowledge and plan next steps.

Staff identify their role in offering parents guidance and support with children's learning and behaviour at home. For example, they conduct highly innovative parent workshops to share advice and ideas on how parents can enhance children's communication and language.The manager promotes democracy in the workplace.

She encourages staff to debate ideas and participate in decision-making to drive improvement. The manager evaluates staff roles and responsibilities, and the need for training, to further enhance their professional development.Strong collaboration with other professionals plays an integral part in improvement strategies.

The manager is keen to improve the way the team works with other professionals to ensure children can reach their full potential. The manager works effectively with local health visitors and early years coordinators to ensure staff practice and assessments are tailored to meet children's needs.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Safeguarding is of a high priority. The manager conducts regular staff meetings to enhance knowledge of safeguarding issues and child protection. Staff have a secure understanding of different types of abuse and key indicators for concern.

They know the correct procedures to follow should they have concerns about children's welfare, including non-mobile babies. Staff are confident to whistle-blow should they have concerns about another staff member. There are effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the provision, including monitoring accident procedures.

The manager implements effective risk assessments to minimise risks in the environment. This ensures that children's experiences are safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: help staff to recognise when to adapt their teaching in response to children's spontaneous play interests to further extend their knowledge and understanding.