K&K Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children form secure attachments with the kind and nurturing practitioners who care for and educate them. For example, babies reach out their arms smiling as they are received by their key person on arrival. Older children confidently wave goodbye and bounce in enthusiastically. Children's attitudes and behaviours are good. Practitioners are skilled in helping children share and take turns. They are calm and extremely patient and explain and show children how to share using age-appropriate language. Consequently, children play harmoniously together and behave well. They show they feel emotionally safe and secure and, as a result, they are ready to learn.

Children display a positive attitude to learning and persevere as they try to master new skills. For example, babies learn to feed themselves, while older children learn to manage tongs to self-serve their own snack and master the tricky spaghetti onto their forks at lunchtime. Children take pride in their achievements as practitioners support them to build up their resilience and independence.

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

• The manager and team are passionate in their mission to ensure that all children benefit from quality care and learning. Professional development is smartly targeted to improve outcomes for children. The manager and practitioners reflect on what is working well and what they need to further strengthen. This helps to improve the outcomes for children.
• Parents highly value the nursery team and appreciate the support and time taken to provide feedback face to face and through the parent app. They are aware of the activities their children enjoy and their next steps in learning. Parents further support learning at home by taking books and activities to share together. However, occasionally, parent's views and ideas are not fully embedded within the evaluation process to help improve practice and provision.
• Practitioners use children's experiences and current interests highly effectively to support them in acquiring new knowledge. For example, practitioners teach children about planet names and use non-fiction books. The children then construct elaborate rockets to support their learning and use planet names in their play as they 'blast off to the moon'. Consequently, children make good progress in their learning.
• Children enjoy outings into their local community to explore the village, park, library and shops. They meet different people and grow their knowledge about themselves, others and the diverse world they live in.
• Practitioners promote literacy well. They add more challenge for older children by sharing more complex stories. Wider learning is interwoven as children listen to the story, 'Handa's Surprise'. They engage in conversations about what is unique about themselves, similarities and differences in the world as they develop respect, tolerance and their own self esteem.
• Children learn the importance of living healthy lifestyles. They follow good hygiene routines after visiting the toilet by washing their hands and dress themselves with increasing skill, ready for their move to school.
• Practitioners provide a language-rich environment, where children continually build their vocabulary through stories, songs and discussions. Children develop the language they require to share their feelings and talk confidently to their friends about their interests and experiences. Babies communicate choices by nodding their heads, pointing and babbling. Children make very good progress in their speech and language development.
• On the whole, practitioners have high expectations of all children. They use assessment well to monitor children's progress. However, practitioners do not consistently use the effective strategies in place to better support all children, particularly where gaps are identified. As a result, not all children have the targeted support they require to fully enhance their learning experiences.
• Children enjoy their time outside in the garden in the fresh air. Practitioners are highly vigilant and teach children the importance of managing risk as they run and play games. They develop their large muscles as they use bikes and cars with growing skill. Babies develop their core strength and leg muscles as they pull up to stand and grow in confidence in taking their first steps.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen partnership working with parents, so that their ideas and views are better used to fully evaluate and improve practice and provision effectively
• support staff to use the effective strategies in place more consistently to help all children to fully enhance their learning experiences.