KidZ City Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this friendly, welcoming nursery. The broad curriculum is planned well and extremely inviting. For example, children can choose to practise their physical development skills in a large soft-play area. They also enjoy a variety of real-life resources in the role-play section. These features help to ignite children's interests and curiosity.

Staff work hard to make sure all children achieve to the best of their abilities. Children behave well and form close attachments to the staff. Staff find out about children's interests when they join. They find out about their families and their likes and dislikes. This means that they enjoy familiar activities on entry and quickly settle down to learn.

Children develop good self-care skills. They learn to pour their own cereal and milk, wash their own bowl and wipe their own faces. Children enjoy the opportunity to be independent and take responsibility for their own actions. Children move between the rooms and outdoor area confidently. Staff prepare them well for changes and new routines. They praise children and celebrate their achievements. For example, staff display the children's work on special shelves. Children show pride as they share their carefully built constructions.

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

• The managers and staff have taken effective action to bring about improvement and address the actions raised at the last inspection. They have implemented ongoing training and addressed the weaknesses found with the key-person system. Staff feel well supported and feel more confident in their approach to the planning and delivery of tailored learning. For example, they adapt the provision to suit the learning styles of all children. This helps to support children's individual needs.
• Children are supported to follow their ideas and curiosities. For example, children notice discarded rubbish in the neighbouring river. Staff use this as an opportunity to support children to explore the effect of litter on the environment. This is extended during children's independent-play activities, as they imagine ways to save the turtles. They demonstrate their understanding of keeping the environment clean by placing their own unwanted waste in the outside bins provided.
• Overall, staff support children's early language development effectively. For example, they model and repeat the correct language and narrate children's play. Staff describe and comment on what children are doing. However, they do not always give children the opportunity to contribute to the conversation. This limits children's practice of extending their own language and communication skills.
• The special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator (SENDCo) has a good knowledge of children, and gives good support to staff to provide targeted plans for children. They have made adaptations to the provision to help those children who find it difficult to communicate verbally, including those who speak English as an additional language. For example, they use visual prompts and signing. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to ensure that children with additional needs are well supported.
• Staff implement skilful interactions with children during independent play and care routines. For example, they help children to source items that will enhance and extend their play and skills. They plan a wide range of exciting activities and experiences for children. However, they are not always clear about what they intend children to learn in planned group times. Consequently, children do not benefit consistently from these activities.
• Staff greet families in a friendly manner, taking time to listen and share information. They get to know the children and their families very well. Managers have a good overall insight into the children and families in their care. They use funding to maximise opportunities that directly benefit individual children. For example, they plan outings that give children experiences they may not otherwise have. They support parents to use their bicycle-lending scheme to explore the local community in a safe and healthy way. These outings help children to gain an understanding of their local community and the wider world.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further extend interactions with children and encourage them to talk more, to build on their language and communication skills
• strengthen planning of group activities for children in order to focus teaching more precisely on the targeted learning intentions.