Kids Planet Stafford

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and confidently leave their parents and carers at the door. Staff are kind and nurturing in their interactions. This helps children feel safe and secure. Children freely choose and explore the appealing activities, planned to ignite their natural curiosity. They move around between the stimulating indoor and outdoor areas with purpose and engagement. Children make good progress from their starting points, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Knowledgeable staff work together to identify children's emerging gaps quickly. They implement personalised programmes to help address children's additional needs.

Staff guide children's behaviour through gentle reminders, such as using 'kind hands' when playing with others. They follow effective strategies that help older children to reflect on their behaviour and understand how their behaviour impacts others. Staff praise children in their efforts, recognising their achievements and helping to raise their self-esteem. Staff seize all opportunities to discuss different emotions with children, for example when staff read the word 'furious' in the story, they stop to check children's understanding of this word.

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

• Since the last inspection, the new management team have completely redesigned and simplified the curriculum. The curriculum is designed with an underpinning vision that children are 'happy, safe and making progress'. Staff plan the curriculum with a clear focus on children's language and communication skills and personal and physical development.
• The provider notified Ofsted of an incident and has taken steps to ensure children's safety. The leadership team continually reflect on ways to further support staff and improve outcomes for children. Managers ensure staff complete regular risk assessments, making sure that play areas are safe for children to use. The deployment of staff ensures that children are always supervised, inside and outside.
• Staff use timely observations and ongoing assessment of children's learning, to plan activities and exciting opportunities in response to their personal needs. Additional funding that some children receive is used to promote their learning effectively. For example, the management team has purchased sensory resources that help children to remain calm and focused, promoting their emotional well-being.
• A strong focus is placed on developing children's language and communication skills. Children listen to stories attentively as a group. Props, along with the creative reading skills of staff, capture children's attention. Staff working with babies skilfully encourage babies' thinking and extend their language, such as by asking 'What can you see?' and 'What does it feel like?' as they explore the sensory tray.
• Overall, staff are on hand to offer support to children during times when children are free to choose what they play with. Children enjoy activities such as role playing in home corners, finding their ingredients to make cakes, constructing complicated rail tracks and building towers with large bricks. However, other duties of staff at more demanding times, such as nappy changing and changes in routine, mean that children's play and learning are not supported consistently well by staff. At these times, some children become less engaged in purposeful play.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents are extremely complimentary about every aspect of the nursery. Staff have developed highly engaging strategies to involve parents and carers.
• Staff generally encourage children to take responsibility for tasks, such as serving their food and tidying up after using resources. However, there are times when staff step in too quickly to do things for children, rather than allowing them to learn how to do tasks on their own. For instance, they do not consistently encourage children to wipe their own faces and hands after lunch or put on their own coats for outdoor play.
• Staff support children's creative skills successfully through a variety of stimulating activities. Outside, children squash berries and add water to mud as an alternative to paint. They use natural objects, such as sticks, leaves and their hands to make marks on hanging fabric. Babies and toddlers experience 'gloop' and feel the changing textures of the substance in their hands. They use a range of tools to make shapes, explore and collect the gloop.
• The provider's approach to staff supervision and training helps everyone to grow their professional skills and knowledge. New staff are supported to complete important training during their inductions and are coached by experienced staff to understand their roles and responsibilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• promote children's independence further to build their confidence in managing more tasks for themselves
• ensure staff delegate the timing of tasks effectively during busy times to better support children's learning.