Kiddies Kingdom

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are welcomed by the friendly staff when they enter the nursery. They happily hang their coats on their own pegs, which they identify by finding their photo. This helps children feel valued as a member of the nursery community. Children quickly settle, playing and exploring in the well-resourced group room. Staff plan activities and areas of the nursery that suit children's abilities and needs to help support their learning and well-being. For example, children who are preparing to move on to school spend time in a quieter part of the room. They use pens and boards to make meaningful marks. Staff encourage them to listen to the sounds they hear at the beginning of their names and other words, helping to support children's early literacy skills.

Children follow their interests. For example, after visiting the local park, they want to find out more about the creatures they saw, triggering new activities, songs and stories in the nursery. Children learn new words staff introduce when they investigate life cycles of frogs and butterflies and are keen to make their own bees from coloured dough. Children behave well. They respond positively to the gentle reminders staff give them about sharing and being kind to others. Staff centre the curriculum around children's personal, social and emotional development, helping to provide a foundation for children to build on what they already know and understand.

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

• Children develop a love for books. They look through shelves and boxes in a relaxing corner of the room, finding their favourite and familiar story books. They carefully turn the pages, reciting the stories through the pictures they see. Other children snuggle up next to staff to listen to the tales being read to them. Staff encourage parents to take books from a small lending library to share with their children at home. This helps to support children's learning at home.
• Children who speak English as an additional language settle well in the nursery. Staff ask parents to teach them important words and phrases in the languages children hear at home, helping to support early communication for children and staff in the nursery. Pictures and signs around the room help children find resources and understand the daily routines they join. Group activities that focus on children's communication and language development are enjoyed by all and contribute to children's growing vocabularies and understanding.
• Staff are motivated to continue their professional development. Regular supervision, training and coaching help staff to strengthen their own knowledge and understanding of how children learn.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported to begin to recognise and regulate their emotions. Staff give them time to get ready for changes in routines, such as when it is time to come in from the garden. This helps children manage the transitions throughout the session.
• Children welcome staff to join their self-chosen games and activities. They ask questions and are proud to show staff what they have created, such as buildings they make from bricks. However, through their enthusiasm, staff do not always give children sufficient time to solve problems for themselves, find different ways of doing things or predict what might happen next. This limits children's opportunities to think independently.
• Staff share ideas and plan themes and activities in their weekly meetings. Key persons make regular observations of children to help identify what they need to know and understand next in their learning. These next steps are shared with the whole team, helping to shape the plans on a daily basis. However, staff do not fully fully consider when to introduce or repeat activities to provide children with the best learning experiences. For example, some children miss out on the very first time caterpillars are shown to the children in the nursery because they have already gone home.
• Parents report that their children enjoy their time in nursery. They describe the improvements they have seen in recent months and speak positively about the kind and approachable staff. However, some parents do not feel they know how they can continue to support children's learning and development at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• give children even more time to think how to solve problems, find different ways of doing things and predict what might happen next
• support staff to provide adult-led activities that take into account the most suitable time, location and number of children to provide the very best learning experiences for children
• review and enhance communication with parents to help them know how they can support their children's learning at home, linking this to children's next steps in learning.