Kiddi Caru Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very content and demonstrate that they feel safe and secure at the nursery. They establish strong relationships with the kind and nurturing staff. Babies babble and smile as staff respond and interact with them gently. They delight in exploring sensory play activities. For example, children curiously search for objects underneath shredded paper. This tactile experience helps to develop babies' cognitive skills in problem solving and object permanence.

Children develop mathematical knowledge as they measure out ingredients when making play dough with staff. They concentrate, listen intently and follow instructions. Children make scientific discoveries as they closely observe how the mixture changes and transforms when adding different ingredients. They use descriptive language like 'sticky' and 'soft', and staff introduce new words, such as 'cinnamon'. As a result, children develop a broad range of vocabulary.

Children freely access the well-resourced environment. They are very independent and competent to do things for themselves. For example, children skilfully pour their own drinks and serve themselves during mealtimes. Children play cooperatively and happily swap bicycles outside with each other. Staff regularly praise them for their efforts and acts of kindness. This helps to boost children's confidence and self-esteem.

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

• Parents talk positively about the care their children receive and are fully involved in their children's learning. For example, they are encouraged to borrow books and resources from the nursery to support their children's education further at home. Parents are kept well informed of their progress through regular online updates and termly reports.
• Staff provide good opportunities for children to develop their literacy skills. For instance, children listen to stories and talk about what is happening in the book. Staff ask children questions and link events in the story to real-life experiences. This helps children to make connections and promotes engagement. Children are confident and enthusiastic to share their own stories, thoughts and ideas with other children in the group.
• Children demonstrate very good behaviour. For example, during a music session, children patiently wait their turn to share the musical instruments and props. They enthusiastically sing along and join in with repeated refrains and actions. They develop good physical skills as they move their bodies to music.
• Staff promptly identify gaps in children's learning and swiftly put strategies in place to help them move forward in their education. For example, they use visual timetables effectively with children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to help them understand what will happen next during the day. Children with SEND are supported well to join in activities and mealtimes with other children, which strengthens their social and communication skills. Staff speak regularly with other professionals to review children's progress and share information about their learning and development.
• Staff implement robust procedures to support children with allergies and medical conditions. For example, a colour-coded system is in place to help identify children with allergies. In addition, a designated member of staff is assigned to sit next to those children during mealtimes. This ensures children are protected and not exposed to risks.
• The leadership and management team has sufficient overview of the nursery. The team has identified strengths and areas for further development, such as evaluating systems for children who speak English as an additional language. The leadership team is passionate and strives to deliver high-quality care and education. However, systems for monitoring the quality of staff practice are not securely embedded, to raise the already good teaching skills to a higher level.
• Staff know the children well and are knowledgeable about child development. They implement a broad and balanced curriculum and provide activities based on children's interests. However, at times, when planning an activity, it is not always precise enough in identifying what they want children to learn. This means that children's learning is not maximised.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice so that it focuses more specifically on developing staff's already good teaching skills to an even higher level
• improve planning to identify more precisely what children need to learn from an activity so that their learning is maximised.