Kids Planet Burbage

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter confidently and settle quickly at the warm and welcoming nursery. Staff encourage older children to practise their small-muscle skills as they squeeze and squash play dough to form shapes. They encourage children to be kind and share resources as they create pictures alongside their friends. Children show they are confident as they explain what they have drawn and the colours they have used to visitors. Staff help children to build their confidence as they learn to take manageable risks during play. Younger children are supported to navigate the best way to climb up and down a bridge in the garden. They negotiate space as they use their large muscles to propel themselves forward on bicycles and push toy shopping trolleys.

Older children are supported to use their listening skills as they follow staff instructions on how to move their bodies during a yoga session. They are encouraged to stretch and bend, building their coordination and balance. Staff support children's independence. Children are encouraged to wash their hands and serve themselves lunch, carefully spooning out the food onto their plates. Staff provide positive encouragement for children as they play, saying, 'Good job' and 'Well done' when children fulfil a task or challenge. Children show pride in their perseverance and develop a positive attitudes to learning.

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

• The management team and the staff offer children an ambitious curriculum, which prepares them for the next stage of their learning. Staff plan a wide range of activities that excite and intrigue children. They carefully consider children's interests as they plan so that children remain engaged and motivated to learn.
• Staff provide routines at the nursery that are familiar to children. These help children to understand what is happening now and next. However, some routines are cumbersome, and children wait for prolonged amounts of time, for example, before snacks and mealtimes. Children become increasingly unsettled and restless and do not benefit from high-quality learning experiences.
• Pre-school children are continually supported, and the staff model play well. They talk to children as they play and ask questions to find out what children know and can already do. Staff understand the importance of building new words for children. A member of staff continuously chats to a group of younger children as they explore a range of flowers and fruit in water. However, at other times babies and younger children are not always supported enough to develop their communication and language skills or early sounds and babbling.
• The management team leads and manages the nursery well. They strive for continuous improvement and place emphasis on continuously prioritising staff well-being. The staff talk positively and are complimentary about the support they receive. They benefit from regular supervision meetings and training opportunities to enable them to fulfil their roles.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well at the nursery. Staff are confident in their roles. They recognise when children need additional support, and swift intervention is provided. The management and staff team work closely alongside other professionals to put further strategies in place that help children with SEND make good progress.
• The management and staff team have high expectations of children's behaviour. They support children to build positive relationships with each other and remind them to be kind and to share with their friends. Staff help children to develop resilience in all areas of learning. They encourage and support children positively as they celebrate their achievements.
• The staff ensure the children are supported as they transition to school. Teachers from the local schools are invited to visit the children at the nursery. Children's key person shares information about their progress. They take children for visits to their new schools to further help prepare them for the next step in their education.
• Parents speak highly of the support the management and staff team provide for their children. They comment that the staff work closely with them to support children's progress. For example, when children are potty training, staff provide help and advice. Parents say the staff are a 'brilliant, supportive and friendly team.'

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's planning of nursery routines so that children are consistently engaged in their learning
• improve the support provided for babies and younger children to help them develop their early communication and language skills.