Kindercare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at the nursery, where staff provide a safe and well-resourced learning environment. This enables children to freely select items and instigate their own play. Children and babies are keen to explore and have a go at the wide range of activities on offer. For instance, they make marks, complete puzzles and collect and compare conkers at the 'busy hands station'. Children enjoy their learning. They like trying tricky activities, such as catching falling leaves and taking turns to build 'wobbly' towers of bricks. They learn to ask for help from staff when they need it and receive praise for their perseverance.

Children's behaviour and attitudes are very good. They are caring and remind each other of the 'golden rules' in the nursery. They say 'sharing is caring' and 'slow feet inside'. The manager and staff are wonderfully positive role models. They treat children with respect and are consistently kind and calm in their manner. Staff use sensitive and age-appropriate methods for managing unwanted behaviour. They frequently praise children for being kind and helpful. This helps to support children's confidence and self-esteem.

Overall, leaders and staff have high expectations for children's learning. They know children and their families well. Key persons can confidently talk about their children's capabilities and interests. They recognise any children who are falling behind in their development. The curriculum is ambitious and staff implement it well.

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

• The manager is knowledgeable, proactive and enthusiastic. She seeks and receives good support from senior managers to make identified and necessary improvements. For example, they have changed the layout of the rooms in the nursery to enable all children to access the exciting curriculum.
• The manager observes practice directly and reflects on staff's training and well-being needs. These arrangements are fully established, and many staff are being supported to gain even higher qualifications. However, although some staff's teaching is consistently strong, not all staff's interactions with children fully support them to make the best possible progress. For instance, some staff do not give children sufficient time to deepen their ideas, solve problems, predict outcomes and find different ways of doing things for themselves.
• Staff support children's speech and language development very well. They use hand signs and conversations throughout activities. This helps to extend children's communication skills and vocabulary. For instance, children count the currants in their pretend tea cakes and explain how two semi-circles make a circle. Staff manage group times well. Children learn to listen to other people, which helps to build their social skills ready for school.
• All children develop strong attachments with their key person. Staff who care for babies do so with fun and warmth and clearly adore the job they do. Babies and younger children demonstrate they feel emotionally safe and secure. For example, they cuddle into their key person to enjoy a favourite story.
• Staff support children's developing self-care skills and encourage very good hygiene routines. For instance, babies proudly use a spoon to feed themselves, and staff introduce nose-blowing and toilet training to younger children.
• The special educational needs coordinator has a clear understanding of her role and responsibilities. Staff work with partner agencies to ensure that children's individual needs are identified and well met. This makes sure that children have a consistent approach towards their care and learning.
• Staff work closely with parents and carers. They update them on a regular basis. For example, staff share activity ideas so that parents can help to continue children's learning at home. Parents comment how thrilled they are with their children's progress since joining, in particular in their speech and independence.
• Overall, staff help to develop children's physical skills to a good level. For instance, older children use balance and control to jump over small hurdles. They learn to work out their own limitations and how to manoeuvre the equipment to make it more challenging. However, at times, staff do not ensure that the outdoor learning environment has a rich range of play experiences to further support children's development. This limits children to build on their growing physical skills. Additionally, some children lose focus to explore, investigate and use their creativity outdoors.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the already good teaching to enable children of different ages and abilities to focus, concentrate and stay fully involved in a variety of contexts
• make full use of the space outdoors to help to keep children engaged in their play and build on the physical skills they can already do.