Kiddie Capers, Ardingly

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children at the setting are happy and settled. Younger children lead their own play with staff support. For example, they start their own games of hide and seek, and the other children and staff join in. Children laugh with delight during their game.

Older children enjoy cleaning laminated teeth with toothbrushes and water. Children learn about healthy foods and how to look after their teeth. The activity prompts children to make links to their own family routines. Staff allow children time to voice their thoughts and ideas. Children share the resources well with their friends and staff praise them for this.

All the children come together to play in the outside area. They have access to a variety of resources. Children choose which activities they want to do, such as drawing, digging in the sand and manoeuvring ride-on toys. Children take part in a wide range of experiences, which helps to prepare them for their future learning and development. They visit the local shops, feed the ducks, go on picnics, take part in forest school, and watch the showground events being set up.

Children write letters to themselves, which they post together. This promotes their literacy skills. They enjoy looking at their own letters once they have collected the post from the office. Overall, children make good progress in their learning and development.

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

• The strong manager has a clear vision on how to further develop the provision. Leaders support the manager well in her role. They listen to the manager's ideas and support her to put these in place.
• The manager plans an ambitious curriculum to support children's learning and development. Children have many opportunities for rich and diverse experiences that extend beyond the setting. Staff plan activities based on the interests of the children. They assess children to track their progress and identify next steps. The manager encourages staff and parents to give feedback about the positives of the setting, and areas where it could improve. This enhances communication and informs best practice.
• Staff say they are happy at work and feel they can talk to the manager about any concerns that they have. The manager helps staff to balance work and study commitments. She talks to college trainers to see how they can help staff by easing the burden of meeting coursework deadlines.
• Staff communicate well with parents, through face-to-face discussions, the parent app and noticeboards. Staff are flexible and support parents in many ways. Parents say their children are happy at the setting and they are making good progress.
• Staff use the library to support children's home learning. Children are able to choose and exchange books on a weekly basis. This helps to promote a love of reading. Children have their own notebooks to take home with their choice of book. This gives parents and their children the opportunity to read, and mark make together.
• The manager takes all reasonable steps to offer a learning environment that is suitable and accessible for all children. Staff receive appropriate training to care for children with specialist care plans. Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and additional funding meets the individual needs of children.
• Children are well behaved and interact well with staff and friends. Staff take appropriate action to help children to resolve conflict and manage their feelings. Staff encourage children to be independent. For example, they support children to register themselves, find their own named water bottles, and put their shoes on the right feet.
• Staff build good relationships with children. Sometimes staff are unclear about their roles and responsibilities when they are supporting children who are not their key children. This means that sometimes they do not meet the needs of all children.
• Staff generally have good knowledge about children. Occasionally, they do not gather information quickly enough to meet the needs of new children when they start at the setting. This means that sometimes staff delay implementing strategies to support children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the key-person system to ensure that all children's needs are consistently met when their primary key person is not available
• ensure that information is promptly gathered about a child when they start at the setting to be able to support them effectively from the outset.