Kids & Co Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Practitioners are friendly and greet children with warm interactions as they enter the nursery. Children are given comfort and reassurance as they settle. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Practitioners know their key children well and plan engaging activities that spark children's curiosity and meet their individual needs and interests. Practitioners have high expectations for what they want children to learn. They follow the children's lead, ask questions and start conversations to encourage children to think and learn.

Leaders have clear learning intentions of what they want children to learn. They implement a broad curriculum that promotes a strong focus on children's communication skills and emotional development. The curriculum flows seamlessly throughout the nursery to ensure children build on what they already know and can do as, they move up to the next age group. The special educational needs coordinator works in partnership with parents and other professionals to provide tailored support for children with emerging needs. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress.

Children demonstrate kind behaviour towards one another. For instance, children in the toddler room find their friends water bottles and give it to them. Staff gently and effectively manage behaviour. They encourage children to resolve conflict situations by asking them to help the friend they have upset. Children respond well to this and apologise without prompts. For example, children help their friends up and say 'sorry' when they have fallen over during a minor altercation.

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

• Leaders plan and provide extra-curricular activities from outside agencies, such as sports, dance and Spanish lessons. Practitioners use the resources within the local community to broaden children's learning and development with real experiences. For example, children visit the train station and river to see different types of transport and the local firefighters visit with the fire engine. Children also take walks to find numbers in the environment. This helps to provide children with a greater understanding of the world.
• Children have many opportunities to develop their physical skills. There is a range of equipment, indoors and outdoors, to encourage children to climb, balance and build. Children develop their fine motor skills through activities, such as mark making and magnetic boards. This helps children strengthen their large and small muscles.
• Children learn about the natural environment. For example, practitioners discuss with children why the soil is frozen in the digging area, and they encourage children to touch the frost on the trampoline and describe how it feels. Children explore the natural environment independently and look for worms with support from practitioners. They introduce mathematical language to describe the worms, as 'long' and 'short' and count how many they find. This enhances their knowledge of mathematical concepts and vocabulary.
• Practitioners promote children's language and communication skills effectively. They speak clearly and model correct pronunciation and grammar. Practitioners support children who speak English as an additional language in many ways. They collect key words and phrases in their home language to help them to communicate. They use visual cards and boards and record parents speaking in their home language.
• Children have access to books in all rooms. They enjoy reading and singing in groups and looking at books by themselves. Pre-school children create their own stories that are read to them by a practitioner at group time. This encourages a love for books and reading. Young children enjoy mark making and pre-school children recognise letters and practise writing their names.
• Children have opportunities to be independent. Babies learn to wash their hands at a low-level sink and access resources themselves. Toddlers choose songs using choice boards and older children serve their own food and put away belongings, such as coats. However, opportunities to be independent are not always consistent, for example, children who want milk, pour their own drink and use cups, but children who want water drink out of bottles. This means some children do not develop their independence skills further.
• Children have opportunities to learn about different people and cultures. Practitioners provide opportunities to celebrate different cultural festivals throughout the year. Parents are invited in to cook traditional food or read stories in their home language. However, practitioners do not always provide accessible resources that represent the children and their uniqueness in the setting, to further develop their sense of belonging.
• Leaders have clear recruitment and ongoing supervision arrangements in place. They carry out appropriate checks to ensure that all staff are suitable. New staff receive an induction to secure an understanding of the nursery's policies and procedures. Supervision sessions are used to review the continuous professional development of the team, discuss any concerns and support their well-being.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery and practitioners and value the support and communication they receive. They comment on how happy their children are to attend the nursery and how well they are developing.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider further opportunities for children to consistently develop and use their independence skills
• enhance the use and accessibility of resources that represent the cultures and uniqueness of the children who attend the nursery.