Kids Planet Little Lever

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders strive to offer the highest quality provision. Children arrive eager and ready to learn. They access an environment that encourages exploration and investigation. As young children confidently move between indoors and outdoors, they examine the many natural resources. These include, for example, vegetables which staff provide to enhance children's play and stimulate their senses. Pre-school children excitedly make a mud pie and add the leaves they have collected to the soil. They talk about the leaves being wet because of the rain and shake the branches. The children laugh in delight as water sprinkles on them. They are learning about the natural world around them.

Children access a rich and varied curriculum. They are developing a love of reading and feel confident to ask adults to share books with them. Older children access the outdoor library and enjoy books independently or with their friends. This is supporting them to recall stories and introduce their own narrative. Younger children enjoy yoga sessions which staff provide as a way to help develop their physical skills. Older children carefully use their fine motor skills to cut up vegetables to make a soup. They show perseverance in achieving their task and proudly place their potato into the pot. Adults have high expectations for the children and offer lots of praise and encouragement. As a result, children are developing confidence and resilience.

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

• The highly skilled manager, along with the leadership team, has clear and ambitious plans to promote continuous improvement. They inspire staff to become highly reflective practitioners, who continually look for new ideas and ways to develop their practice. Leaders support their staff exceptionally well, prioritising their well-being as well as targeting their training and development. They understand there is more to do before all staff are able to consistently implement the exciting and challenging curriculum in a way that delivers the best possible outcomes for all children.
• Regular information-sharing ensures that parents and staff know about children's care needs and interests. Staff make effective use of this information to promote children's next steps. They keep parents well informed of children's development and ways they can contribute to their good progress.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported extremely well. The experienced special educational needs coordinator works closely with families and other professionals. Swift referrals, when concerns are identified, enable the setting to access additional support and funding for children who are eligible. This is targeted well, so that all children are provided with high-quality support to make the progress they are capable of.
• Staff provide children with some rich experiences which promote speaking and enhance vocabulary. For example, children are keen to talk about the woodlice they found during a bug hunt. Staff extend this by encouraging children to think about what other insects the next group might find. However, staff do not consistently use effective methods to help children think for themselves. At times, they suggest, as opposed to modelling wonder and thought. This can limit children's ability to develop their own creative ideas.
• In the main, children's behaviour is very good. Many children understand the routine and some of the high expectations that staff have for them. For example, children wait their turns and queue nicely when preparing for lunch. Leaders intend for staff to reinforce wanted behaviours positively. However, sometimes, staff focus on reminding children of the behaviours they do not want to see. This does not consistently help all children understand the kinds of behaviour expected.
• Adults know their key children well and offer high-quality care while taking into consideration their individual needs and interests. Babies have built strong attachments with the staff who care for them. They demonstrate how safe they feel as they confidently explore the environment. This supports their personal development well. However, when children are upset, although staff quickly look for solutions, they do not consistently encourage children to talk about how they are feeling. This means children are not always best supported to understand some of their emotions.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the support for staff to consistently implement the curriculum in a way which promotes the characteristics of effective learning, particularly children's creative and critical thinking
• support staff to consistently implement intended methods to help children understand the kinds of behaviours expected in the best possible way
• further develop practitioners' skills in supporting children to understand their own feelings and emotions 'in the moment'.