Kattz Kidz

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive and settle quickly at this welcoming nursery. They form friendships with other children and secure bonds develop between children and their key person. Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress and receive good support. Strong working relationships with other professionals contribute to children's individual needs being met successfully.

Children gain the skills they need for the next stage in their learning. Staff help prepare them to transition to the next room. For instance, staff encourage children to become confident in pouring their own drinks and drinking from open cups. When children move between rooms, staff provide a thorough handover to the next key person. This supports children to continue to make good progress when they move on.

All children enjoy the learning opportunities on offer. Staff value the choices of children from a young age. For instance, babies select the rhymes that they want to sing. Non-verbal babies choose from pictures in a book, while those who are beginning to speak use key words to share their choices. Older children are given a choice of activities to complete, and staff follow their lead. This helps children to remain engaged in their learning and promotes the positive behaviour that children demonstrate.

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

• There is a clear curriculum in place that meets the needs of the children. Leaders consider the cohort of children. They adapt the curriculum focus to support areas of learning that children need to develop further. They carefully consider what skills children will need to gain before they move on and provide ample opportunity for children to develop these skills successfully.
• Leaders reflect on the provision on offer and what they can do to make further improvements. They have good oversight and manage the staff team effectively. Leaders recognise how they can support staff in their roles and are conscious of staff workload. They continue to develop their own knowledge and skills to share the roles and responsibilities with the staff team. Staff recognise the support they receive and speak positively about this.
• Parents are happy with the guidance they receive to build on their children's development at home. They feel well informed about the progress their children make and what they do at the nursery. They have a good knowledge of children's targets and what next steps they are working towards.
• Staff know the children they work with well. They tailor adult-led activities to support the individual targets of each child, while keeping the overall intention of the curriculum at the heart of what they do. Staff challenge and extend children's learning appropriately. They provide ample opportunities for children to secure their knowledge and make connections between their experiences. This enables children to gain a secure understanding of what they are learning about.
• Children are supervised as they eat and become familiar with the expectations and the routines around mealtimes. Older children line up to scrape their plates and collect their pudding. This prepares them for their move to school. However, staff do not consistently engage children during periods where they are waiting for the next part of the mealtime routine. This does not make the most of their learning opportunities.
• Children enjoy playing in the garden and explore the different areas with interest. At times, children all play outside together and the outdoor area becomes quite busy. Staff are well deployed to ensure that children remain safe as they play. However, at times the busy nature of the outdoor area takes them away from being able to focus fully on supporting children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to engage with children fully at mealtimes to maximise children's learning opportunities
• strengthen the arrangements for outdoor learning to enable staff to focus on supporting all children's learning more effectively.