Kids 1st - Gosforth

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, safe and settled in the nursery. They benefit from positive relationships with caring and consistent staff. Children also enjoy friendships with their peers and talk positively about their friends. Children are well behaved and have a good attitude to learning. They engage well and are keen to take part in all available activities. Staff demonstrate that they know the children well

All children benefit from an ambitious curriculum that is well implemented. The support for children with additional needs is a particular strength of the setting. Some children receive good quality and regular one-to-one support from a familiar key person. All staff demonstrate that they know the children in their care well and plan appropriate learning experiences for them. Staff in the baby rooms ensure that they support children's emotional needs, particularly during settling-in routines and sessions.

Procedures for dropping-off and collecting children have returned to pre-pandemic routines. This means that parents are welcomed into the building and into their child's base room. This helps staff to develop good partnership working with parents and carers. Parents expressed very positive comments during the inspection and are happy with the care and education their children receive.

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

• Staff ensure that there is a strong focus on developing children's language and communication across the setting. As well as speaking and listening, staff also demonstrate simple signs for children to also use from a young age. Staff introduce children to new words, as well as revisiting familiar words, in each activity.
• Children show an interest in books, and older children independently narrate stories that staff have read to them. This helps to promote their language and communication and their understanding of the sequence of a story.
• Children also engage in lots of mark-making activities, which promotes their hand-eye coordination, fine motor development and early literacy skills. However, not all children can easily access drawing materials when they want them. This impacts on children's independence.
• Pre-school children are skilled at managing their own behaviour effectively. For example, they remind each other about sharing and taking turns, which they then promptly do, without any adult intervention. This supports a positive and harmonious environment.
• Older children play well together in role-play activities and when using real items in the home corner area. For example, they pretend to make orange juice for each other. This promotes their social skills, imagination and language development.
• Staff also ensure that children learn about their own emotional well-being. Older children benefit from weekly relaxation sessions where they talk about different feelings and learn how to relax.
• Staff ensure that children have interesting opportunities to learn about the wider world. They have trips on the metro to a theatre, visit a local nursing home and learn about different artists and creative styles.
• Children have opportunities for learning about early mathematics during the daily routine, for example when counting how many children are going for lunch and when singing number songs and rhymes. However, some adult-led activities to help children learn about shapes and patterns are not sufficiently challenging for the most able children.
• Babies benefit from well-thought-out and designed rooms. For example, the layout and resources support babies movement and physical skills. Staff also ensure that all children benefit from designated outdoor play areas that are designed to suit their developmental stage.
• Older children skilfully negotiate space and avoid obstacles when whizzing around on bicycles outside. Their physical development is also promoted when they roll and catch balls, blow bubbles, jump and hop.
• Staff also extend indoor learning to the outside environment to build on children's curiosity. For example, children have been learning about dinosaurs, and older children enthusiastically dig for hidden 'dinosaur bones' in the outdoor sand tray.
• Staff benefit from strong and supportive leadership and management. They also have good access to ongoing training and development courses, which supports positive outcomes for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• promote children's independence further, for example, by ensuring they can easily access drawing materials when they want to
• adapt some adult led activities to ensure they are sufficiently challenging for most-able children.