Kids Planet Kettering

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and confident in this warm and friendly nursery. Staff greet children warmly as they arrive, helping them to feel safe and secure. Children are active learners, who eagerly explore the range of activities available. Staff's interactions with children are positive and meaningful. Staff join in with children as they play and engage them in rich back-and-forth conversations. Older children demonstrate high levels of well-being and confidence, as they excitedly recall past experiences, such as visiting a local fire station. Staff share books with children, pausing and talking about the pictures on the pages and encouraging children to comment and name what they see. This helps foster children's language development in a natural way.

Staff help children to understand and follow nursery routines. When younger children are hesitant, such as during handwashing before meals, staff use imaginative strategies. This includes encouraging children to 'slither like snakes' to the sink. As a result, children are quickly re-engaged and respond positively to praise and encouragement.

Physical development is well promoted, with frequent opportunities for fresh air and exercise. Outdoors, children navigate space and use their large muscles as they jump, climb and balance on tyres and planks. Staff plan music and movement sessions and children show delight as they move their bodies to the music and explore musical instruments.

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

• Leaders have developed a well-sequenced curriculum that builds on children's existing skills and promotes continuous learning. The key-person system is effective, ensuring staff are familiar with key children's needs and tailor activities accordingly. Staff use ongoing assessments to track children's progress. To support transitions, settling-in sessions are offered when children move to new rooms, helping them to adjust to the next stage in their learning journey.
• Leaders hold regular supervision meetings with staff, enabling continuous professional development and reflection of their practice. Staff feel supported by leaders, which contributes to high morale and staff retention. Robust recruitment and induction procedures are in place, and leaders ensure all staff undergo appropriate checks before working in the nursery.
• Staff use assessment regularly to monitor children's learning and identify any signs of delay. They work closely with parents and outside agencies to ensure all children, including those with special educational needs or disabilities, make good progress from their starting points in learning. Additional funding is used effectively to provide tailored support, such as one-to-one assistance and extra resources to meet children's individual needs.
• Children's behaviour is very good. Staff are good role models and consistently use positive reinforcement. As a result, children listen to rules and follow the nursery routines. Staff promote a sense of responsibility by encouraging children to help tidy up before snack time, praising them for their efforts and boosting their self-esteem.
• Staff are effective in promoting children's language and communication. They narrate children's play, introducing new words and using open-ended questions to prompt children's thinking. For children with emerging language skills, staff use early sign language, alongside words, to support their understanding.
• Overall, staff encourage children to develop their independence. Children are encouraged to pour and serve their own food and drinks. Older children attend to their self-care needs, such as wiping their noses and faces. However, sometimes staff carry out these tasks for younger children. Before nap times, staff remind younger children to remove their shoes, but then perform this task for them. As a result, younger children are not given the same opportunity to develop their independence.
• Staff weave mathematical concepts into children's play. They pause to prompt children's counting, encouraging them to name the next number. Staff prompt children's thinking. For example, when children say there are 'two flowers', staff address misconceptions and suggest they take another look together. This helps to develop children's understanding, as together they count lots more flowers.
• Staff share information with parents through an app and keep them informed of their child's learning and development through daily discussions. The nursery holds stay-and-play sessions, offering parents the chance to see what their children are learning. Parents speak highly of the care and education their children receive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• give younger children more chances to manage their own self-care tasks, such as removing shoes or wiping their own faces, to further support their growing independence.