Kido Clerkenwell

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a bright and welcoming environment. Children are confident and have high self-esteem, which they demonstrate by happily talking to visitors and inviting them to join in with their play. Staff manage children's behaviour effectively. This helps children to understand boundaries and supports them to make positive choices. Children behave well. They develop their personal, social and emotional skills well. Children eagerly share toys with their friends and enjoy playing together.

Children are enthusiastic and active learners. They enjoy the exciting and challenging activities staff plan for them, such as exploring with play dough, playing with toy cars and building with blocks. Outdoors, children have fun running, jumping and learning to balance. They explore the nursery garden and enjoy digging and learning about the different vegetables and herbs they have planted. Children enjoy listening to stories and singing songs. Staff teach children mathematical concepts, such as size, shape and colour. This helps children to make good progress in all areas of development.

Staff support transitions and routines to develop children's confidence and independence well. At lunchtimes, children serve themselves food and water and use cutlery to feed themselves. Staff interact warmly with children during nappy changes and at rest times, which helps them to feel safe and secure.

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

• Communication and language development is a key focus of the nursery's ethos. This starts from outside the nursery, where talking points are displayed at a child's height. This enables children to have conversations with their parents as they wait to come into the nursery. Staff talk with children throughout the day to encourage their language development. Children learn to become confident communicators.
• Staff successfully teach children about making healthy choices and leading healthy lifestyles. They ensure that children wash their hands regularly and have daily physical exercise. Children look forward to eating the healthy snacks and meals. They make connections in their learning, such as planting vegetables in the garden and then eating them.
• The curriculum is well sequenced and planned effectively. Staff regularly observe and track children's progress. They plan exciting activities based on children's interests, what they know and what they need to learn next. However, on occasion, during activities, staff do not always give children enough time to think and answer questions that are posed to them. This does not provide consistent opportunities for children to promote and develop their own thinking.
• The manager and staff have high expectations and work hard to achieve the best outcomes for all children. Staff work with parents to address any concerns regarding children's learning and development. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress in all areas of their development.
• Children are motivated and curious to learn, and they behave well. They learn about the nursery's rules and boundaries and know what is expected of them. Children are kind and friendly towards each other. They receive lots of praise from staff, which helps them to develop their confidence and self-esteem.
• Staff receive effective support from the manager and value regular supervision meetings. They report that they are well supported, both personally and professionally, by the manager. Good induction, support and training opportunities enable staff to clearly understand their roles and responsibilities.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents speak highly of staff and describe them as caring and passionate. They value the daily feedback they receive and the regular updates about their children's development through the nursery app. However, some parents discuss that, although they receive general information about their child's learning, they are not aware of what their children's next steps for learning are. As a result, some parents are not aware of how to support and extend their children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to make better use of questioning during activities to promote children's thinking
• strengthen relationships with parents to ensure that they are aware of their children's next steps in learning so they can continue their learning at home.