Kiddie Capers, Hurstpierpoint

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome as soon as they arrive and settle quickly to chosen activities. Children with a delay in their language development are well supported. For example, they use picture cards and display these on the 'My choices' board to communicate what they want to do. This empowers children to make decisions about their own learning and enables them to express their views.

Children behave well and show curiosity when they participate in activities, such as making fruit kebabs. They are keen to explore and taste the different varieties of fruit. Children demonstrate high levels of concentration as they practise hand-to-eye coordination skills as they thread fruit onto their wooden sticks.

Children have opportunities to learn about festivals that their friends and families celebrate. This supports them to gain a wider understanding about people and communities. For instance, they find out about Mehndi as part of Diwali celebrations and proceed to create their own patterns in coloured rice.

Children show good levels of independence. They wash their own hands, put on their coats to play outside, and use cutlery with great skill at mealtimes.

Babies have secure attachments with staff. They are exposed to high levels of language linked to their experiences. For example, babies are cuddled by staff as they share picture books and model language for them to hear. Babies receive positive praise when they babble and mimic sounds, while showing fascination as they look at the images in board books.

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

• The manager is supported by senior leaders to provide high-quality care and education to all children who attend. She is ambitious and passionate about getting to know children and families well. This helps her to understand what children need to learn. As a result, the manager works with staff to plan activities that offer a broad range of experiences for all children.
• The manager supports staff with regular supervision. She has a good awareness of the strengths and areas of development of the staff team and is providing relevant professional development to help staff extend their skills.
• Children enjoy exciting learning experiences that help to prepare them for the next stages in their learning. However, during some activities, such as those where children of different abilities participate, staff are not fully effective in providing appropriate levels of challenge to extend children's learning to the highest level.
• Children benefit from positive interactions from staff. However, on occasions, staff ask children questions and then provide the answers if they do not respond swiftly. This limits their opportunities to think and respond with their own ideas.
• Children have positive relationships with their peers and demonstrate good levels of language to express their play ideas to others. They take turns and play cooperatively, sharing resources during imaginative play experiences. For instance, children work together to build a birthday cake and candles out of construction bricks. They excitedly proceed to blow out candles and break up the bricks to distribute them to friends. Children talk to each other about their play ideas and comment 'this cake is delicious, is it strawberry flavour?'. Children giggle and remain focused in this play for an extended period of time.
• Staff provide resources and set up role-play areas to work with children to teach them about oral health and different ways that they can look after their teeth. This is helping children to learn about how they can contribute towards their own health and well-being.
• Staff encourage children to take responsibility for caring for their play environments. Children demonstrate positive attitudes as they work together to actively help clear up and wipe tables after they have participated in messy activities.
• Staff work alongside parents and other professionals, where needed, to help all children reach their full potential. Staff seek advice and implement strategies to help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, children who receive funding and those who speak English as an additional language. This contributes towards supporting children's communication skills.
• Leaders recognise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's communication and language development. They therefore ensure that children have a wide variety of activities to expose them to new language. For example, staff regularly sing with the children, linking songs to play experiences. They regularly read books that children choose. This is helping to broaden children's vocabulary and develop their interest in books.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff practice and ensure that activities offer appropriate levels of challenge to extend all children's learning more effectively
• provide children with more time to process their thinking and express their ideas during interactions with staff.