Kids Planet Mere House

Inclusion: Expected standard

Early identification is done by the key person through supervision or brought to the attention of designated leaders. Staff consult with parents to keep them fully informed of their child's progress. Staff complete special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) plans and carry out 12-week cycles of support, showing knowledge of the graduated response. The staff team are supported centrally by the SEND team to put interventions and adaptations in place while waiting for referrals to come through. Children who experience barriers to their learning are typically supported to make progress. For example, children who show delay in their physical development are encouraged to gain control over their physical movements.

Staff support children with communication and language delay. They use screening systems to help identify gaps and areas of focus. This helps to inform staff practice and highlights areas of focus, which staff share with parents. Children's individual needs are considered and planned for. However, some children who struggle to communicate are not always given the targeted support they need to help them to make progress. Leaders place emphasis on supporting all children, regardless of their starting points or any barriers to learning they may face.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Staff are confident in their knowledge about individual children. They talk about their needs and interests and what they are working on next. Staff focus on personal, social and emotional development, where they support the settling in of new babies and children new to the setting. They talk to children about feelings and emotions. Staff talk about how children are feeling and why to help them to understand why they feel that way. They promote many opportunities for physical development for older babies who are learning to walk. Regular access to the outdoors allows children to explore nature and develop an understanding of the world around them. This, combined with weekly movement and music sessions, allows them to practise their developing physical skills and gain control over their movements.

Staff engage well with children and offer lots of opportunities for communication. They highlight new words and celebrate with children when they use them in their play. Staff sit with small groups of children in the cosy to share stories. They point out the pictures and discuss the scenes with children. They sing songs relating to the story, which children join in with.

Leaders are supporting staff with understanding and fully implementing the curriculum. Children's individual needs are considered and planned for. However, some children who struggle to communicate are not given the targeted support they need to help them to make progress.

Achievement: Expected standard

All children make progress from their starting points. Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face other barriers to their learning receive support to enable them to achieve the next steps in their learning. Children independently use the magnifying glasses and tools to search for real bugs. They excitedly show off their collection of worms and bugs. Children talk about the creatures they find, using mathematical language and appropriate vocabulary to describe them. They also know to return the bugs to their natural habitat once they have shown their friends.

Children benefit from lots of opportunities to communicate and engage in conversations with their peers and staff. This helps them to develop confidence in their speech and learn new words. Regular story-time sessions and lots of singing enable them to join in with familiar stories and songs. They practise what they have learned in their independent play. Children share and take turns and have a respectful attitude towards each other. They learn how to navigate differences and avoid conflict through robust boundaries and golden rules.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Children's behaviour is exemplary. Robust routines and boundaries are consistent across the setting. Children develop highly positive attitudes to learning early in their journey and build up on this as they progress through to the next stage of learning. Leaders consistently promote opportunities for children to develop their independence. For example, children set the table before meals and put on their own boots and coats to play outdoors. Staff remind children of rules such as 'walking feet' and 'kind hands'. Children consistently remind each other of the rules through their activities. For example, when handing out snacks, they encourage each other to say 'please' and 'thank you'.

Children can access the outdoors freely, which helps to support some of the learning and development and manage behaviour. Staff deal well with behaviour. They identify potential signs of conflict and use distraction techniques or provide additional resources to mitigate any issues. Staff use signals to help children to know what is coming next, for example sharing the tambourine to signal tidy-up time. The children follow the routines and help to tidy the areas with staff support. Leaders focus on children's attendance and quickly follow up on unexplained absences to ensure that children who may be at risk are checked on promptly.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff offer settling-in visits to all new starters. They spend time with parents, getting to know the babies and their home routines. These are then replicated in the setting to help babies to settle into their new environment. Interactions between children and their key persons are of a high quality, meaning that children are really involved in activities and curious about their learning. Children are supported to learn about and understand feelings and emotions. Staff use stories and props to help children to talk about their feelings and express their emotions in a safe way.

Staff help children to wipe noses. They offer children the opportunity to do it for themselves to encourage independence. Staff stay in the area where babies sleep to carry out regular safe-sleep touch checks. All information is recorded on the app for parents, including times of checks and times of sleeps. Staff are clear about safer sleep procedures as part of their training with the company through induction.

Staff carry out daily risk assessments to ensure that the environment is safe for children. They plan activities that support children to take balanced risks, such as climbing and exploring outdoors. However, staff do not always consider the appropriateness of all resources to ensure that activities are age appropriate.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders are clear about their plans for continuous improvement. They work closely with staff to address any issues and identify points where changes need to be addressed. Action is then taken swiftly to ensure high-quality provision.

Staff talk passionately about training, which is identified through supervision. This is a joint approach to training, where leaders identify areas where support or training may be needed to enhance practice, then discuss this with staff before agreeing a course of action. This shows that staff are consulted and are fully aware of their next steps and achievements.

Partnerships with parents are well embedded and reflect a coordinated approach to learning. Leaders focus on children spending time in nature and away from screens. They provide home learning bags containing recipes and ingredients to make bird feeders, or ingredients to make soup. This helps parents with opportunities for children to contribute to their child's learning in the setting.

Leaders and staff work closely in partnership with other agencies to help support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who may face other barriers to their learning. Through their early identification of any needs, swift referrals are made to external services. Leaders liaise with speech and language and health services to ensure that appropriate adaptations are made for children who face barriers to their learning.