Kids Planet Blackburn

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery uses the natural landscape to provide adventure and challenge for children. For example, tree roots and sloping hills allow children to develop their physical skills and strength. The nursery offers children a wealth of opportunities to support their development. For example, staff take babies on walks around the locality. They take older children on the bus to the local town, visiting the library and shopping for fruit at the market. Children visit the zoo. Staff use these experiences to enhance the strong curriculum. Children develop their physical skills and get ready for school as they take part in sports coaching. They gain a wide variety of sporting skills and knowledge. All children make good progress.

Staff have warm relationships with children. Babies enjoy cuddles and snuggle into staff as they settle, which supports their well-being. Children make lots of choices about their day. For example, younger toddlers choose what snack they would like as they learn about colours and textures. Children learn about recycling and take steps to separate their waste, helping them to become thoughtful and reflective. Children are happy and generally behave well. They have positive attitudes towards learning. For example, babies giggle as they splash in water and listen to nursery rhymes. This helps children to become highly engaged in the variety of activities they take part in.

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

• There is good support for children's communication and language development. Staff narrate activities for babies, and older children learn lots of new words. However, occasionally, staff ask younger toddlers lots of questions in quick succession, without giving them time to respond. This means some children do not always have the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas.
• Children become highly engaged in their play. For example, they become explorers as they search for insects with magnifying glasses. They observe with delight as the insect crawls on their hands. Children work together to decide where would be a good home for it. Learning is meaningful for children.
• The nursery places high priority on developing children's health and well-being. For example, pre-school children have visits from a dentist, which helps them to learn about dental hygiene. They brush their teeth at the nursery daily. This helps them to learn about some of the different ways they can keep themselves healthy.
• Staff do not consistently implement the curriculum intentions for children's personal, social and emotional development. For example, they do not always teach toddlers the importance of sharing and taking turns. This means that children do not always learn the social skills they need to maintain positive relationships with others.
• Parent partnerships strongly support children's development. For example, children take home 'learning bags' with resources to support their development at home. This allows children to embed the skills they learn at nursery.
• Partnership working is exceptional. Staff work closely with other professionals and the local authority to support children, including those with complex medical needs. This means staff have the expert knowledge they need to meet children's needs.
• Additional funding is used to purchase resources tailored to children's needs and interests, for example additional books for children who require support with their early literacy development. This helps children who are allocated funding to make good progress.
• Staff regularly read and sing to children. For example, staff sing nursery rhymes with younger toddlers, who join in with puppets and actions. Older toddlers eagerly listen to books about dinosaurs, counting them as they go. Older children listen intently as staff read engaging stories. This helps to support children's communication and language skills.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) access an ambitious curriculum. The special educational needs and disabilities coordinator is knowledgeable and works closely with staff and parents to support children. The nursery works closely with the local authority to access support for children. Children with SEND make good progress.
• The nursery operates a range of programmes to support staff well-being. Staff report high levels of support from managers. This helps them to perform their roles to the best of their ability.
• Staff undertake a variety of training to help them to develop their practice, for example training in communication and language screening. They use what they have learned to track children's progress robustly. This helps them to quickly close any gaps with targeted interventions.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• allow children time to respond to questions they are asked so they are able to share their thoughts and ideas
• help staff to implement the curriculum intentions more precisely to support children's personal, social and emotional development.