Kids Planet Salford Quays

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff focus strongly on developing effective relationships with children and their families. Children are developing friendships and give each other hugs when they arrive. Babies and young children go to staff when they need comforting and snuggle in for cuddles. This helps them to settle in quickly, showing they feel safe and secure.

Children are supported to learn to walk, run, sing and talk. When children use shortened versions of words, such as 'ta', adults say 'thank you', so that children hear the correct version of words. Children actively join in with songs and rhymes, learning the words and copying the actions. Young children show enjoyment as they count the numbers of monkeys bouncing on the bed. Older children are encouraged to use number and confidently count beyond 20. This supports their early mathematical development. Parents report that their children are more sociable and talkative since attending. Children are well behaved.

The learning environment is intentionally designed to entice babies and children to explore, investigate and be physically active. Ample floor space and appropriate equipment and furniture helps them to practise crawling and walking safely and confidently. Many children do not have a garden space at home, so staff make sure that children have lots of opportunities to play and learn outdoors. Babies reach for board books to look at and toddlers experiment with running sand through their fingers and finding plastic spiders. Pre-school children delight when they conduct an experiment and watch the chemical reaction taking place as 'lava' pours out of the pumpkin head. This supports their good all-round development.

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

• Room leaders have a clear understanding of what they want the children to learn. They make sure that activities have a clear focus to help them build on children's learning and development. Staff use a range of strategies to teach children to experiment, test out their ideas and work together to solve problems. This prepares them well for their next stage in learning.
• Young children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. The special educational needs coordinator and staff team are alert to any signs of delay in children's development. They swiftly put in place a support package to ensure that children do not fall behind in their learning and development. The setting works with parents and other agencies to ensure that appropriate and timely support is acquired for all children who need it. As a result, all children are making progress from their different starting points.
• Partnership working with parents is a key strength. The good sharing of information ensures that staff know children well, understand their cultural backgrounds and meet their needs. Staff provide activities for parents to do with their children at home, such as an autumn hunt. This helps parents to feel part of their child's learning at nursery and know how to support this at home.
• Children have lots of opportunities to become part of their local community and learn about the world around them. They learn the importance of caring for bees with the resident beekeeper, and take part in community activities and events, such as a duck race and a racing car pit stop. Children learn about celebrations that are part of their friends' cultures and religions, and are developing an understanding of how they can help to support vulnerable members of the community. This helps to prepare children for life in modern Britain.
• Leaders want children to develop good levels of communication and language skills, particularly those who speak English as an additional language. They provide training and support to staff to develop their practice. Staff talk, model language, sing and read to children, which enable them to learn full words and sentences. However, staff do not make the most of available opportunities to help children practise and extend their vocabulary to the highest level.
• Children receive lots of praise and encouragement that supports their confidence and independence. They show pride in their achievements. Staff are helping children to learn how to manage their emotions. They talk calmly with children and model effective techniques such as 'catching a bubble' where children learn to take a deep breath and slowly release it. However, staff do not always consider how they can enable children to do more things for themselves given their ages and abilities. Some children struggle with some simple tasks as a result.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• embed the curriculum intent for promoting children's communication and language development with all leaders and staff, so that children make the best possible progress
• help leaders and staff to enable children to learn how to do more things for themselves in order to better promote their school readiness.