Little Smarties

Little Smarties

Unique reference number (URN): EY547310 Address: Former Royal British Legion Site, Pecked Lane, Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, GL52 8JR Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 11/08/2017 Registers: EYR Registered person: Little Smarties Limited

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Strong standard

Inclusive practice ensures that all children who face barriers to learning and/or with special educational needs and/or disabilities have the same quality experiences. Children benefit from the expertly sequenced approach to learning. This helps children learn skills over time and continually build on what they already know and can do. As a result, children develop the skills they need for their future learning and are very well prepared for starting school. Children achieve in all areas of learning, and parents report on significant improvements in speech and independence since joining the nursery.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children are creative in their play and keen to take part in activities with staff. For example, children use leafy herbs to represent trees and plant them in groups in mounds of sand. Children participate in a wide range of high-quality interactions with staff, which contributes to them being confident and successful learners. Children learn to work together. For instance, pre-school children model to their peers how to plant seeds correctly so that they will grow.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Staff have developed impactful teaching in regard to helping children understand how to express themselves and regulate their feelings and emotions. They have a consistent, calm, respectful approach, and clear boundaries and expectations help children understand and follow routines. Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They promote skills such as taking turns and sharing from a young age. When routines change, staff use visual aids and cues to help prepare children, such as singing a 'washing hands' song and 'now and next' picture boards.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Staff build strong attachments with their key children. They plan individualised settling-in processes and have specific strategies to use for supporting the emotional needs of individuals. Staff's impactful teaching means children develop a motivation to learn and have positive attitudes. For example, staff's enthusiastic and engaging manner with toddlers during outdoor play results in children showing sustained interest, enjoyment and involvement as they explore nature and play imaginatively with real vegetables in the mud kitchen.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Staff understand the value in helping children to develop effective independence and self- care skills. From a young age, children wash their own hands and feed themselves using cutlery. Social opportunities outside of the nursery are vast, including trips to the shops for fresh produce and story and rhyme sessions at the library.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Attendance is monitored closely by leaders, and support is given to families that need it. This ensures that children develop positive and healthy habits for the future.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Care practices across the nursery are highly effective in meeting children's individual needs. Staff know the children extremely well. They pick up on their cues and ensure that they work in partnership with parents and carers to offer a continuity of care. Parents comment on the caring and sensitive approach from staff. For example, when babies are unsettled, staff invite parents to spend more time in the room to help babies gain positive experiences at nursery. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are known to social care receive personalised care that reflects their ever-changing needs. Sleep and feeding routines are responsive to children's rhythms, and children confidently express their needs effectively. As children transition through the nursery, they are encouraged to develop independence in their self-care. For instance, dressing themselves for outdoor play.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Physical development is prioritised through regular outdoor play in the different gardens across the nursery. Planned activities indoors also build children's coordination and strength. For example, they climb ramps and slide down slides. Children learn about safety on their walks in the local community. They get plenty of exercise, and staff teach them about healthy lifestyles and ensure that they get plenty of fresh air in all weathers. They recognise the value of this on children's physical and mental health.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Leaders and staff provide an ambitious and well-structured curriculum. Staff are responsive to the interests of the children and enrich the curriculum with a wide range of real-life experiences. For example, through purposeful trips into the local community and through the use of real objects in their play. Staff consider ways to incorporate the use of as many senses as possible. For instance, they learn about how the colour of water can change, experiment with capacity and quantity in water play and use the scented liquid from the juice of fruits. This hands on and sensory based approach works well to increase children's curiosity and deepens children's understanding of concepts through play.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Staff consistently extend children's language as they model new vocabulary, ask thought- provoking questions and engage them in conversation. Mathematics is taught effectively. For example, number, shape and colour are woven into activities naturally. Physical development is prioritised. Both indoors and outdoors, children have vast opportunities to practise their developing motor skills.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Staff adapt their teaching effectively to enable all children to participate, such as through removing any physical barriers in the environment, adjusting the language used and providing additional resources, such as 'fiddle toys'. Staff use assessment effectively to tailor teaching to what children need. This ensures that all children who face barriers, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, access the full curriculum.

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Inclusion Strong standard

A strength of the nursery is the support it gives to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and others who face disadvantage. Leaders are extremely proactive in their efforts to ensure that they do all that they can to help remove barriers to children's learning. Leaders understand the barriers that children face, and they are persistent in their quest to get every child the individualised support that they need.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders and staff quickly identify when children require additional support and have gaps in their learning and development. A graduated approach is applied effectively, and timely referrals are made to other agencies when required. Staff put effective personalised plans in place to support children. For example, they ensure that children have the interventions they need to make the most progress and that the staff team attend any additional training they may need. Plans are vigorously monitored to ensure that they always remain relevant. They work closely with parents and carers and a range of professionals from other agencies, such as occupational therapists and social workers. This ensures that children receive a consistent approach at home and in the nursery. Additional funding is used very well. For example, leaders purchase specialist resources to meet the personal, social and emotional needs of children with SEND and use it to offer more one-to-one support at key times of the

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Leaders are extremely committed to providing high-quality care and education. The staff team works very well together. Leaders and staff have a reflective approach that results in improvement being made continually to meet children's ever-changing needs. Leaders support and lead their staff team well, supporting staff to gain higher qualifications and develop expertise in areas that they are passionate about or particularly skilled in. Staff feel highly valued by leaders. Staff morale is high, and this creates a positive environment for children.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Partnerships with parents and carers are secure. Parents comment that they are kept extremely well informed, and leaders and staff maintain a constant two-way flow of information. Leaders are highly effective in the family support they offer parents and carers, particularly those most deprived and those who face barriers, including those known to social care. Leaders have high expectations for the staff and strive for excellence. This means that they continually reduce barriers in children's learning.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Leaders and staff work collaboratively with outside agencies and other professionals involved in children's lives. Staff are keen to continue to build on their skills and knowledge, and leaders seek out relevant training to ensure that all staff have the knowledge and understanding they need to meet children's specific needs. Leaders ensure that the nursery maintains a sharp focus on inclusion and wellbeing.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children arrive happy and settle especially well into this welcoming and nurturing nursery. They are greeted by staff who know them extremely well and the highly effective key-person relationships mean that children feel safe, valued and confident to explore. They arrive with great enthusiasm to get involved in the range of highly stimulating and interesting activities and experiences that staff plan for them. Babies and any child with barriers to their learning receive individualised and sensitive support that helps them develop eagerness to learn, trust and secure attachments. Highly effective partnership working with parents and carers helps staff get to know children and ensures that they receive a continuity of care.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children thoroughly enjoy their learning. The curriculum is thoughtfully planned to address any needs of the cohort of children and any gaps in children's experiences. This helps ensure that they are well prepared for starting school. Activities are well planned for children based on their interests, what they already know and what they need to learn next. This careful planning alongside staff's skills in extending children's learning in the moment help all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those known to social care make positive progress in all areas of their development. Children thoroughly enjoy the staff's involvement in their activities. They regularly seek out the staff to join in their play and benefit from the extension and opportunities to practise skills that staff facilitate during these interactions.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

The importance of attendance is communicated effectively across the nursery. Families are supported to help their children attend regularly, and children develop well-embedded routines that prepare them for the attendance expectations of school. Children behave well and develop a wide range of social skills that help them get on well with others. For instance, children show kindness to one another, learn to share and play cooperatively in play.

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Next steps

Leaders and those responsible for governance should sustain their work to ensure continued improvement and high standards. They should focus on creating a transformational impact on the outcomes and experiences of all children, including disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, children, parents and the special educational needs coordinator during the inspection.

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Address:

Former Royal British Legion Site Pecked Lane Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham GL52 8JR

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Little Smarties Limited

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 18:00

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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0 to 4

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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