Destiny Kids Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are supported by kind and respectful staff. This ensures that children and their families feel happy and settled at this nursery. A well-embedded key-person system enables all children to part with their carers with ease as they run in to tell their friends what they have seen on the way to nursery. They thoroughly enjoy small-group activities and one-to-one time with their key person, who understands their needs.

Leaders have created a setting that promotes inclusivity. The dedicated leadership team promotes connection with the local community, which ensures that local families feel welcomed and supported. Parents feedback that the nursery provides everything they need to feel part of a warm and welcoming nursery community.

Staff support children's emotional well-being and set very clear expectations for behaviour. This helps the children to understand what is expected and, in turn, this ensures that their behaviour is positive. Staff help children to develop an understanding of expected behaviours. They praise children for making positive choices, such as sharing with their friends and being kind. Staff model the behaviour they expect and say 'please' and 'thank you'. Children develop good levels of independence. They are encouraged to put on their coats and shoes when going out and help to lay the table at mealtimes.

Overall, children access an ambitious curriculum that has been designed to support the unique ways that children learn. Staff work with parents to understand each child's individual interests. This ensures that children access broad and varied opportunities for learning.

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

• Children have lots of opportunities to practise skills during role play. Staff sit alongside them and encourage them to make pizza and salad. At times, they have real food added to the role-play area, which helps them to further develop their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. They confidently count out how many plates they have and match them with the number of children.
• Staff benefit from regular supervision and training and feel well supported by the manager. They are given good opportunities to enhance their professional development. This helps to raise staff morale and improves outcomes for children.
• Children are exposed to singing throughout the day. They often burst into spontaneous song when they are transitioning from the garden to the indoors and when they begin to tidy away. The team is aware of how to support children's communication and language development following recent training.
• Leaders work well with other agencies and settings that are involved in children's care. They support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. Staff share information with other settings to ensure that children experience consistency in their care and learning.
• Staff understand the importance of encouraging all children to participate in learning experiences and they recognise that some children progress quicker than others. However, on rare occasions, some children do not fully engage in group activities and staff need to further embed high-quality teaching strategies to support their access to the curriculum.
• Staff plan learning experiences using the children's interests to capture their attention and develop their concentration. They provide a range of opportunities to embed new knowledge. The children confidently recall past events and information shared. This helps them to cement this new knowledge, such as a developing awareness of animals in different habitats.
• Staff follow the nursery's policies and procedures well, especially in relation to managing children's medication. They ensure that all children's health and well-being needs are a priority. As a result, children know that they need to wash their hands to keep themselves healthy, drink water with their meals to help their food digest, and 'catch their coughs' to stop germs spreading.
• Leaders use additional funding effectively. They seek specific resources to support children's learning. Children go on outings to broaden their life experiences or benefit from visitors to the nursery, such as a mobile zoo. These experiences support children to gain knowledge and understanding of the world.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further develop the consistency of how staff engage and interact with all children, to fully support and extend each child's learning across the curriculum.