The Wendy House (Lynwood) Limited

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happy and settle quickly to play with their friends. They build strong bonds with staff, which helps them to feel safe and secure in their care. Children have regular opportunities to exercise and be active, which supports their good health and physical well-being.

They have weekly sessions with an outside provider to further develop their physical skills, coordination and balance. For instance, children enjoy opportunities to stretch and grow their muscles and increase their control of their bodies. They kick and throw balls of different sizes confidently.

They demonstrate increasing control as they ru...n and change direction, skilfully dodging obstacles to avoid running into others.Children have good opportunities to develop their early writing skills. Staff encourage the most-able children to write for a purpose.

For example, they explain the things they love about their mothers the most, draw their images and copy underneath the written words. They tell visitors how surprised and happy their mummy will be, when they give them to her at the special Mother's Day tea party. Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour.

Children's behaviour is very good. They respond well to staff's reminders to wait, and they routinely use good manners. Children are kind to each other; they take responsibility and help to tidy away toys at tidy-up time and wait for their turn during activities.

Children develop the skills and understanding that help to prepare them for their future learning and their eventual move on to school.

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

Leaders' and managers' intent for the curriculum is clear. Overall, staff plan and implement a curriculum that is designed to give all children the skills, knowledge and understanding that they need for their future learning.

Staff provide a good balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities so that children can freely explore and make independent choices throughout the day.Staff plan an interesting curriculum based on children's interests and individual needs. They know the children very well and use their daily observations of what children enjoy and can do to guide their planning and teaching.

However, some of the activities that staff plan lack sufficient challenge or can be too restrictive to help progress children's development further.Staff provide children with a wide variety of literacy resources within the setting. They encourage children to develop their small-motor skills.

For example, they cut flower stems with scissors and use tweezers to collect seeds. Staff play recorded stories to children to encourage their listening skills. Children enjoy sitting and looking at good quality books.

However, staff do not consistently plan opportunities for children to share stories to encourage their thinking skills and imaginations further.The curriculum for mathematics is embedded throughout all areas of learning. For example, children begin to develop mathematical skills using sparkly diamonds and number resources.

Children use their hands to demonstrate the different sizes, big, medium and small. Children show their pride in finding matching colours and counting up to 10 with confidence.Children develop increasing independence in a range of ways.

For example, older children fill up their beakers with water from the water dispenser, they self-serve their meals at lunchtime and learn to use forks and knives successfully. Good hygiene measures are in place, and children are encouraged to develop independence with their self-care needs, such as washing their hands and going to the toilet.Parents speak highly of the nursery.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they do not enter the setting but wait at the door. Parents comment on the feedback they receive from staff, either in person or electronically. Parents appreciate the advice they receive from staff to support their child's development at home.

The managers have started to welcome parents back into the setting on an appointment basis, following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.The management team empowers staff to continually develop their skills and knowledge. The whole staff team constantly seeks out new ways to benefit children's learning.

The manager completes regular supervision sessions and staff observations which she uses to set targets for staff to work towards.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff are knowledgeable about child protection matters, such as domestic violence and radicalisation.

They know how to identify, report and record concerns about children's welfare. Staff ensure the environment is free from hazards and teach children to keep themselves safe. The provider and managers ensure all staff complete safeguarding training and keep them up to date with any changes at staff meetings.

They use robust recruitment procedures to ensure all staff are suitable to work with children. They deploy staff to supervise children closely and maintain adult-to-child ratios.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to focus more precisely on what they want children to learn from activities, to offer new challenges and help children make the best possible progress nextend opportunities for children to share books and stories with adults to support their love of reading, thinking skills and imagination.

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