Kids Planet Southridge

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery provides a nurturing environment where children thrive. Staff offer a warm welcome and consistent care that helps children to feel secure. Children form strong attachments with their key person. Staff consistently and thoughtfully model kindness and sharing. This contributes to children's highly positive attitudes and behaviour. The atmosphere is filled with joy and laughter. Staff and toddlers giggle together when pretending to mend the fence. Older children laugh as their friends entertain them by making music on the stage.

All children make strong progress from their starting points in development. Staff have high expectations for every child. They tailor their teaching to help each child to build on what they already know and can do. The curriculum centres around the areas where children need the most support. Currently, there is a focus on helping children to further develop their social skills, confidence and independence. Alongside this, staff carefully create and extend opportunities for children to develop across all areas of learning, such as mathematics and literacy. This helps to ensure that the curriculum is broad and supports all aspects of children's development successfully and effectively. The plans for children's learning are meticulously personalised to each child, which contributes to the swift progress that all children make.

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

• The nursery environment is carefully planned to spark children's curiosity. Staff create exciting opportunities that inspire and motivate children. They work diligently alongside children to deepen and extend their learning. Interactions between staff and children are consistently high quality. Staff grasp all opportunities during routines and in play to teach children. They value children's ideas and interests. Children are eager learners and build rapidly on their skills and knowledge.
• Staff have an excellent knowledge about each child's learning needs. They vary their teaching during activities, being careful to support each child effectively. For example, while completing a puzzle with children, staff work with some children to take turns and play cooperatively with their friends. For other children in the group, the aim is to extend their mathematical understanding. This clear focus on children's individual needs contributes to the remarkable achievements that children make.
• Staff weave stories into activities and encourage children's love of reading. The success of this is demonstrated, for example, when boys independently choose a book to share on the carpet. Songs fill the air, for example, to indicate a change of activity or to remind children of the rules. The environment is rich in language, which has a positive impact on children's communication skills.
• Children are confident and articulate talkers, who build rapidly on their vocabulary.
• Leaders scrutinise their provision. Following a programme of reflection, they have focused on enhancing staff's well-being, acknowledging the impact that this has on the quality of care and learning. Staff say their passion for their role has been reignited. They feel very well supported and morale is high. This contributes to the highly positive and happy atmosphere in nursery. Every member of staff strives to provide the best possible care and education for children.
• Partnerships with others involved in children's care and education are a significant strength. Staff work closely with school teachers to ensure that their curriculums complement one another. Parents and carers value the excellent communication between home and nursery. Staff encourage home learning. For example, children take the 'Everywhere Bear' home, along with a challenge to complete before he comes back to nursery.
• Support for children's behaviour is exemplary. Consistent strategies and boundaries across the nursery help children to understand staff's expectations, and they follow their guidance well. Children show kindness, for example, when helping friends to attach a lid to the shakers they make. Staff help them to understand their feelings and consider the impact of their behaviour. Children resolve their own conflicts and negotiate solutions to problems, such as deciding who will use the scissors first.
• Children's health and emotional well-being is a high priority. They benefit from carefully planned physical activity and healthy and balanced meals. Alongside this, staff encourage relaxation, for example, during 'peer massage' sessions and by encouraging children to lay on the grass and feel the sunshine on their skin. Staff consistently teach children the importance of good habits, such as brushing their teeth.
• Staff enrich children's understanding of the world through music, stories and age-appropriate activities. Children learn about diverse families, cultures and traditions in their community and beyond. Staff teach children to value and respect others and to be proud of what makes them unique. They offer consistent praise and celebrate children's achievements. Children are remarkably confident and show great pride in who they are and what they can do.