Kids Universe Montessori and Day Nursery (Kenton)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily as they are greeted by the kind and caring staff. Staff build positive relationships with children and help them to feel safe and secure within the nursery environment. Wherever possible, key persons tend to the children's individual care needs. All children, including new babies, settle quickly.

Leaders and staff are committed to providing children with good-quality education and care. They know what it is that they want children to learn. Staff assess and know children's next steps and learning needs. They design and implement an ambitious curriculum that supports all children in their learning journey. All children make good progress from their starting points, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Staff promote children's safety and well-being effectively. Older children learn how to keep themselves safe. They practise road safety rules while riding bikes in the garden. Staff help children to negotiate space successfully and play cooperatively. Children behave well. Staff are positive role models and support children to listen, follow instructions and develop good social skills. Staff promote children's growing confidence and sense of belonging, as they ask children what they would like to do next, and follow their ideas.

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

• Staff follow children's interests and use these, along with information from their observation and assessment, to plan learning experiences. Children are eager to learn and happily join in with activities, such as story reading or telling. Staff use effective strategies to bring books to life. For example, they help toddlers to use small-world figurines and interactive displays to re-enact their favourite story about a bear.
• Staff support children's communication and language development to a good level. For example, they introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary. Staff provide a regular commentary as babies play. Overall, staff interact with children well during activities and routines. However, they do not consistently support the quieter and less confident children as well as they could. At times, these children become disengaged in their learning.
• Staff and leaders form a dedicated team and have high expectations for all children. Leaders support staff and provide professional development opportunities to continue to raise the standards of teaching. However, there are times when staff do not fully focus on the intent for planned activities. This does not always fully support children to move their learning on.
• Children learn about healthy lifestyles. The nursery provides an appetising, nutritious menu and caters for specific dietary needs. Children's physical health and development are supported well. They play outdoors each day and enjoy vigorous exercise as they run, jump and balance. Children follow hygiene routines and learn about oral health.
• Staff provide engaging opportunities for children to strengthen their small muscles and develop their mark-making skills. Children explore with play dough and practise their hand and eye coordination during threading activities. Children gain good pencil control skills needed for early writing.
• Staff promote children's growing independence and self-care skills. For example, children help to prepare their snack, dish their food and help to clean tables after meals. Staff encourage babies to self-feed, when appropriate. This prepares children for next steps in their learning.
• Staff promote children's positive behaviour well. They talk calmly and respectfully to children and one another. Children demonstrate a clear understanding of staff's expectations of them. They follow instructions and show care towards their learning environment. They happily share resources and take turns.
• Staff in the pre-school extend children's knowledge and understanding of the world as they explore natural materials found in the garden. Children learn simple science as they explore the characteristics of an object, such as heavy and light. Staff help children to use their knowledge to make predictions and test them in a 'sinking or floating' activity.
• Parents praise the setting highly. They value the support staff provide when children settle in or move up between the rooms. Parents say they feel well informed about their children's learning and experiences at the nursery. Staff work with parents to ensure consistency in children's care and learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the quality of interaction with children who communicate less, ensuring they are fully immersed in their learning
• support staff to focus on the precise skills they want each child to gain during planned activities so that children consistently benefit from the intended and well-sequenced learning.