Care4kids Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children, even the youngest, are settled, confident and very happy at the setting. They are independent and are confident to choose their own play and complete their own tasks. Children are eager to join in with the challenging and interesting activities that staff carefully plan for them. For example, younger children enjoy exploring numbers as they use dominoes to make a train track. Older children enjoy making their own fire trucks and use pipes to make 'hoses'. They enjoy bringing their imaginations alive and 'putting out fires'. Children explore and investigate the world around them. For example, they make 3D models using clay and different foliage, such as ivy and conifer leaves. They talk about how they smell and what they feel like.

Staff are positive role models and children are polite and kind. They know what is expected of them and, as a result, behave well. Children develop a good understanding of the benefits of healthy lifestyles. They talk about healthy eating and enjoy growing their own produce, such as green beans and strawberries. All children have good opportunities to develop their physical skills and learn to move in different ways. Younger children negotiate slopes and steps on age-appropriate climbing equipment. Older children explore more challenging equipment, such as rope ladders, zip lines and tyre swings.

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

• Staff establish secure and trusting relationships with all children. They get to know their individual personalities well, including their likes and dislikes. This helps staff plan activities and experiences that they know will keep children motivated to learn.
• Children of all ages have a very good sense of belonging and positive levels of well-being and self-esteem. They enjoy the company of staff and seek them out for hugs and reassurance.
• Staff support all children to make good progress. This includes those children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. For instance, staff liaise closely with other agencies and implement helpful strategies to support children. For example, staff are trained in Makaton and routinely use signing with them.
• Overall, staff support children to build on their vocabulary. For example, staff use a wide range of words during conversations and provide children with a language-rich environment. However, at times, staff ask children too many questions in very quick succession, giving them no time to process them. Therefore, this does not consistently help build on children's developing thinking and speaking skills even further.
• Staff evaluate their practice together and, at the end of each day, discuss how well they engaged children in their learning experiences. They use their findings to support their future practice. The manager closely monitors the good quality of education and care that staff provide children. She routinely observes staff interacting with children and provides them with constructive feedback.
• All staff attend regular and beneficial training. They have recently learned about the different ways to support children to self-regulate their emotions. As a result, they have introduced calming breathing techniques and yoga activities into children's routines. This has helped children to manage their emotions and feelings with maturity.
• Staff show an understanding of the benefits of communicating with staff at other settings children also attend. However, staff do not yet have communication fully established with staff at these other settings. Therefore, staff do not yet provide children with the highest level of consistency to their shared care and learning.
• Staff help children to develop a good understanding of the similarities and differences of people's experiences and different communities outside of their own. This includes languages. For example, children listen to music from around the world, such as Spanish lullabies.
• Children learn how to keep themselves and others safe. For instance, they learn about how to remain safe around campfires, and water safety when they visit the local stream.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build further on staff's questioning techniques to encourage children to think about and respond to questions in their own time
• ensure all staff are clear about procedures for sharing information with other settings, to provide a consistent approach for children's learning and development.