Tiny Tots Nursery at Rugrats and Half Pints

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children eagerly arrive at the nursery.

Staff welcome them warmly, helping babies and children feel safe and happy. Children form close relationships with their key person and other staff working with them. New babies are very sensitively helped to settle, and staff use the information they receive from parents to ensure children's individual needs are closely followed.

Children's move on to a new age group in the nursery is equally well supported. Staff help them become accustomed to this joining up with the slightly older children for outside play or a music session. Children learn to share toys and take turns with r...esources.

Older children form friendships and play happily together.Children develop their independence well and are keen to do things for themselves. Babies and young children confidently explore their surroundings, developing their physical skills very well.

Babies crawl, pull up on furniture and learn to toddle and walk about. Older babies use spoons effectively to feed themselves, and make marks with chunky chalks and paintbrushes. Young children confidently help themselves to drinks and use ride-on vehicles well, pushing themselves around.

Older children show considerable independence skills. They serve themselves food at lunch time, learning to use their knife and fork effectively to cut their food. They use scissors to cut out shapes and mix and rub ingredients together while making biscuits.

Babies and children show positive attitudes to learning and developing their skills.

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

The manager is dedicated to the nursery's ongoing development. She leads regular supervision and team meetings, and supports staff to undertake early years qualifications and a wide range of appropriate training.

She ensures there is a suitable mix of qualified and unqualified staff deployed throughout the nursery. The manager undertakes regular observations of staff practice. She is currently extending this to involve room leaders in this process to help develop staff's teaching skills even further.

Key persons form their planned curriculum and support from regular observations and precise assessments undertaken on children's learning and development. They link closely to babies' and children's interests, providing a stimulating, well-resourced environment for each age group. They act promptly if children are behind expected development, liaising with parents and putting in place additional support.

Children make good progress, and this includes those who speak English as an additional language and children in receipt of additional funding.The manager and key persons work with other professionals, such as speech therapists to get children the help they need to reach their potential. However, links with other settings children attend are not fully in place.

The manager has plans to develop this, to help support a consistent approach across all aspects of children's lives.Staff support children's literacy skills well. They ensure there are books available in all areas and have a lending library to encourage children's use of books at home too.

Staff take time to read to babies and children and develop their understanding and communication. Children learn sounds for the initial letter of their name and the oldest children learn to write letters of their names, persevering well to form these.Children enjoy useful group sessions led by both staff and outside professionals.

They develop a range of skills during specialist sports and music sessions, trips to local parks and regular visits to the adjacent soft-play centre and the local nature area. Staff lead beneficial group activities to build children's confidence and skills. However, sometimes staff are not always successful in maintaining all children's attention and involvement.

They also miss the chance to encourage the less confident children to share their views.Partnerships with parents are strong. Managers and staff work hard to support good communication with parents in all aspects.

They assess and evaluate the tools they use for this regularly, making changes and enhancing their effectiveness. Staff communicate successfully with parents through daily chats and messages as well as entries in an online app. Parents all say they feel well informed and praise the work of the friendly staff team.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff know the possible signs of abuse and are aware of what to do if they have any concerns about a child's welfare. All staff attend regular safeguarding and first-aid training to keep their knowledge up to date.

New staff receive a thorough induction to ensure they understand their responsibilities and are familiar with the nursery's procedures. Staff supervise the children closely. Managers and staff methodically undertake daily checks and implement their risk-assessment procedures effectively.

They identify hazards and minimise risks to children around the nursery, also when using the adjacent soft-play centre and out on trips in the local area. Processes are appropriately reviewed and enhanced to ensure children are kept safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimplement the outlined plans for gaining information from other settings that children attend, to inform future planning and a consistent approach for children support staff to consistently extend all children's confidence, attention and involvement, particularly during group activities.