Kiddiwinks Day Nursery Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome from friendly staff as they arrive at the nursery. Close bonds are evident and lots of giggling can be heard throughout the day. Staff encourage children to notice what is unique about themselves. They plan activities in the local community to provide children with an understanding of the world in which they live. Children demonstrate high levels of confidence and self-esteem in the care of the staff.

Children show consideration for each other. They play cooperatively and take on board each other's ideas. Babies enjoy exploring activities together and lots of smiles can be seen. Staff have established consistent routines and are skilled at supporting children to follow these. For example, staff use tidy up time as an opportunity to support children to sort resources into the right places. They discuss caring for resources and the importance of helping each other. Children thoroughly enjoy helping the staff and show great care and respect for each other and the resources.

Leaders are ambitious for every child to reach their full potential. They have designed a sequenced curriculum which is focussed on the needs of the children attending. In the main, this is implemented well. Staff use assessment well to identify gaps in children's development. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress from their starting points.

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

• Staff use their interactions well to check what children already know and to extend and reinforce this knowledge. For example, as children build towers, staff encourage them to count each brick. As children draw pictures of their families, staff discuss the shapes they can see. Children accurately describe the shapes they need for their creation and describe the size of their family members. Staff are confident to support and extend children's learning in the moment.
• The curriculum for communication language is prioritised and embedded well. Babies snuggle up with staff to enjoy stories together. Staff name the items on each page and children make good attempts to copy them. Staff introduce new words as children play and model clear language. Staff help children become confident communicators from an early age by offering support and encouragement to develop these skills.
• Staff understand how to support children to develop the small physical skills needed for later writing. They provide interesting activities that children eagerly explore. Babies grasp and squeeze sensory materials such as jelly. They stretch as they move toy cars to make marks in paint. Older children show good control with pencils as they draw pictures and attempt to write letters from their names. Children are supported to become eager mark makers who show a genuine interest in early writing.
• Mealtimes are a social occasion where staff and children discuss the importance of healthy eating. Older children talk about the importance of drinking fresh drinking water and eating healthily. They discuss with staff the importance of brushing their teeth and proudly show them how clean they are. Children develop a mature understanding of how to keep their bodies healthy.
• Leaders value staff well-being and professional development. Since the last inspection, leaders have implemented new procedures for the supervision, coaching and mentoring of staff. All leaders have received targeted training to support them in their roles and this has had a positive impact on the quality of education. However, leaders are yet to precisely target professional development opportunities for other staff. This leads to some minor inconsistencies in the implementation of the curriculum.
• Overall, the curriculum is well planned. Staff know the children well and use their interests to help children engage positively with the activities on offer. Staff know what they want children to learn from the activities they provide. However, at times, staff try to cover too many concepts in one activity and lose focus on the learning outcome. This limits the time for children to practise and consolidate their skills.
• The majority of parents are extremely pleased with the amount of information they receive about their child's day and their development. Parents praise their children's key workers for their nurturing approach and talk positively about the bonds their children have made with them. Parents of children with SEND feel particularly well supported. They value the importance the setting places on multi-agency working to support their children to make the best possible progress. Partnerships are effective.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• embed procedures for coaching and mentoring of staff practice to further support the consistent implementation of the curriculum
• refine the planning of activities so there is a sharper focus on the intentions for children's learning.