Highways at Hamstreet Kindergarten

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the setting excited and ready to learn. They have developed extremely close, warm bonds with the dedicated staff team. All children benefit from a fully inclusive, nurturing environment where every child feels safe, secure and valued. Children are encouraged to lead their learning, and staff support them to further explore their interests. They are superbly supported to build friendships with their peers and to understand how their actions impact others. Children are quickly learning to become confident and happy and able to regulate their own emotions.

Leaders and staff provide an inspirational and ambitious curriculum that engages children exceptionally well. Children benefit from an exciting environment full of resources that promote their curiosity and imagination. For example, children exclaim in awe as they mix potions, giggle as they negotiate traffic lights on their bikes and lay back on beanbags as they immerse themselves in stories. Children eagerly await group times and run excitedly into the garden for outdoor play.

The incredibly ambitious curriculum promotes the holistic development of every child. Children thrive and make rapid progress from their starting points. Staff instinctively know when to provide children with extra support to extend their understanding or step back and let children develop their own learning. Many small-group times are carefully planned to target identified gaps in learning and to extend the knowledge and skills of the most able children. Staff praise and celebrate children's achievements, giving them a great sense of pride. Children are exceptionally well prepared for school, with confidence, independence and a desire to learn more.

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

• Leaders and staff provide a thoughtfully designed and expertly sequenced curriculum. It is well embedded, meaning that staff consistently deliver high-quality, targeted and personal interactions that enhance children's development. Staff are highly skilled at providing challenges for children to ensure they all make outstanding progress from their starting points. For example, younger children delight in experimenting with mixing colours, while older children are supported to learn about measurements and capacity.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make exceptional progress in their learning and development. Staff ensure they have excellent bonds with parents and professionals. This ensures any gaps in children's development are quickly identified and expertly supported. Funding is used very effectively to help all children feel included and safe. A high ratio of staff allows children to receive intensive, personalised support to make excellent progress from their starting points.
• Staff prioritise communication and language development exceptionally well. They model rich vocabulary, ask purposeful questions and give children time to think and respond. Staff use sign language and individually created photo cards to support children to express their needs and wishes more confidently. For example, children focus intently as staff teach them how a camera works, learning the words 'lens' and 'film'. Other children use photos to tell staff what resources they would like and recognise songs to help them understand the routines of the day.
• Children treat each other and the environment with the utmost respect. Staff go above and beyond to support children to build friendships with others who are similar to them and enjoy the same activities. They provide experiences to foster these bonds and model respectful, kind friendships. Staff highly praise children for remembering the rules. Children are confidently able to say what the rules are and know why they are important. For example, they tell staff 'I'm doing good sharing,' and 'We do good listening so we can learn.'
• Staff are highly effective at encouraging children to explore, problem-solve and persevere. Children are motivated to join in and have consistently positive attitudes to their learning. Staff praise and encourage children to keep going as they master tapping small pins in shapes to make patterns. Furthermore, older children thoroughly enjoy the challenge of recalling objects under a cloth and naming their initial sounds. Children are independent, resilient learners who approach challenges with high levels of curiosity and confidence.
• Leaders are highly successful at providing children with experiences to help them understand families and communities beyond their own. Staff and parents regularly support children throughout the year to celebrate and embrace their own cultures. Children regularly visit the local tea rooms to share drawings and talk with people of different ages. They also take part yearly in community projects to raise money, such as running stalls at local fairs and garden projects.
• Leaders are highly skilled, passionate and dedicated to providing inspirational leadership to all staff. The whole team work closely together to consistently reflect on their practice and children's developmental needs. Staff access and benefit from an abundance of professional development opportunities. This supports staff to implement excellent practice to extend outcomes for all children. Leaders welcome professionals into the nursery, such as the local school teacher, to further increase staff's knowledge of how to support children's early literacy and maths skills.