Kidaroo childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive with a smile, excited to learn at this home-from-home setting. They have close relationships with all staff, seeking a reassuring look or cuddle when needed. This supports children to feel safe and secure. Children of all ages are extremely confident when making choices in their play. They develop a keen imagination and happily share their ideas while exploring dressing-up resources. Young children use vintage phones and pretend to call different people. Staff encourage them to imitate familiar phrases such as 'Hello, how are you' and 'are you at work'. Children are supported by staff to be compassionate while caring for dolls, cuddling them and learning how to put them down to sleep carefully. They practise changing their nappies and dressing them in different outfits, which helps children strengthen their hand muscles.

Children listen well to staff and follow their instructions while developing their physical skills in the outdoor environment. They create elaborate obstacle courses with staff's guidance, using pieces of wood and crates. Children show determination while safely navigating over them by balancing and jumping. Children are fascinated by Draco the setting's pet lizard. They are proud to show visitors what staff have taught them about looking after unusual animals. Children are quick to remind staff why they must wash their hands after holding Draco. Children have good manners, listening to their friends before talking and saying please and thank you when responding to staff.

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

• Staff have a good knowledge of all children's learning and developmental needs. They work closely as a team, observing children throughout the day to assess what they need to learn next. Staff find out what it is like for children at home. They make sure all children have opportunities and experiences to be able to develop the skills they need for later in life. They place importance on providing healthy family mealtimes, where children learn to hold conversations and talk about healthy and unhealthy foods. They work alongside other professionals when children need additional support, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Staff are well qualified and experienced. They interact well with children to develop their speech and language. Staff working with the youngest children repeat key words and talk to them about what they are doing. As children paint and colour, staff encourage children to describe their pictures, using language such as pear shaped. Staff explain new vocabulary to children. For example, staff explain the word 'stalk' is the stick that hangs pears on trees. They encourage children to consider how to add this line shaped stalk to their drawing.
• Staff follow children's interests to capture their attention when creating activities and experiences. For example, pre-school children discuss with staff the ingredients needed to make a mud pie to feed a worm they discovered while digging in the garden. Staff encourage the children to describe different textures and practise their counting skills while gathering materials, including sticks, leaves and water. Although staff usually build upon what children know and can do, occasionally, they do not provide enough challenge for some children during learning opportunities. Therefore, some children do not make the most progress they are capable of.
• Staff set high expectations for behaviour that children mostly adhere to. Children find staff's praise highly motivating and replicate this modelled behaviour in their own play. They say 'well done' to their friends as they work together to move pipes and buckets of water to the sand pit. However, some children are not given the full support they need to understand how to manage their feelings and share appropriately during play. Therefore, at times, some children take resources from others without asking, or become sad when giving other children resources before they have finished playing with them.
• Leaders are passionate about maintaining a well-established team and put great emphasis on staff's well-being. Leaders carefully consider the needs of the children when planning training for all staff. For example, staff undertake sign language training, which supports children who need additional help with their communication.
• Staff place great importance on their relationships with parents and carers. Parents are highly complimentary in their feedback about the setting and staff, and feel children are completely safe at the setting. They comment that staff encourage 'curiosity and calmness' and attending the setting has 'really contributed to the progress' made by children. Parents enjoy the varied opportunities they have to spend time in the setting with their children. Staff communicate with parents about all aspects of children's development and care and support them in continuing children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more challenge for children during learning opportunities to help all children make the progress they are capable of
• provide children with further support in managing their feelings and behaviour, so they can share resources and resolve conflicts during their chosen play.