Kiddies Playhouse Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff place a strong focus on providing children with a rich set of experiences that build on what they have learnt from home. The manager continuously adapts the curriculum and their teaching approach to reflect the current learning needs of the children. Children progress well from their starting points. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They gain a secure foundation in readiness for school.

All the children speak English as an additional language and the manager has tailored the communication and language curriculum to specifically support children in their home languages and English. Some staff are bilingual and when children first start, staff frequently use children's home language alongside English. As children progress, English language becomes the main focus.

Staff focus on supporting children's sense of belonging and provide children with nurturing interactions. This helps children to form close attachments with them. The manager has rigorous procedures in place to keep children safe, such as at collection and drop off times. Staff share clear expectations for children's behaviour and help them to understand the rules that are in place to keep them safe.

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

• The manager has a clear vision for the nursery and a strategic plan that she regularly reviews. She completes ongoing research to ensure that her knowledge is continuously updated to provide the staff team with strong leadership.
• The manager diligently supports children who are in receipt of additional funding. This includes effective used of funding to support children's individual learning targets. She engages with the local area SENCo and health professionals to ensure that the needs of children with SEND are met.
• The manager provides staff with frequent training, guidance and coaching, particularly to support children's communication and language development. She provides new staff with a thorough induction and review process to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities, particularly for keeping children safe. She ensures that apprentices receive the targeted support they need. However, the manager now needs to monitor staff practice with greater precision to identify all aspects that need to be enhanced further.
• Overall, the manager's curriculum is progressive and builds on children's knowledge and skills with the focus on communication and language within all the areas of learning. Staff design the learning environments to ensure children in each room receive challenging play experiences. The learning environments engage children well and motivate them to play and learn.
• An effective key person system is in place and staff know the children and their families well. Staff are skilled in analysing their observations of children's play and use this information to plan for their individual learning.
• The manager has implemented effective daily interventions to ensure that all children receive targeted support to progress well in their language development. Children are now taking dual language books home to support their continued language development at home. They understand the meaning of words and explain that a cavity is a hole.
• The manager and staff are currently looking at how they can bring more mathematical learning opportunities into children's everyday play. Staff provide younger children with effective models to support their early mathematical language. However, the mathematical curriculum and teaching for the pre-school children does not identify a broad enough range of knowledge and skills to provide children with a fully secure foundation in their learning.
• Staff consistently help children learn about making healthy choices. This includes promoting good oral hygiene routines and nutritious food choices. Children explain how they clean their teeth after they have eaten chocolate.
• Children develop good social skills and staff help them to manage their feelings, such as to share. Older children develop story lines together in their role play and younger children are interested in what their friends are doing. Staff skilfully support new children to feel emotionally secure in the new environment.
• Staff value the diverse cultural backgrounds of the children. Children make links with their home experiences as the role play cooking. Staff encourage children to talk about the Mehendi patterns on their hands and their Eid celebrations. Children explain about the special clothes they wore.
• Parent partnerships are excellent. Parents speak very highly of the service provided and the dedication from the manager and staff to the care and education of their children. The manager and staff provide parents with continuous support to help their children's learning at home. Parents appreciate the frequent workshops that the manager provides for them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend the monitoring of staff practice even further to securely embed the highest quality teaching across the nursery
• enhance the mathematical curriculum for the pre-school children to support children to gain a depth and breadth of knowledge.