Kindercare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery provides a safe and nurturing environment where children and babies soon settle. Staff know their key children well and know what the children need to learn next. The manager observes the planning to ensure staff understand how to sequence children's learning so they make good progress.

Children confidently explore toys and activities with interest, returning to staff for praise and reassurance when needed. For example, babies make lines and circle marks in sand play. Toddlers select play foods and pretend to eat like a very hungry caterpillar. Older children play imaginatively with stick-on body parts as they learn what the different organs in the body can do. Children are happy, motivated and keen to learn.

Throughout the nursery, staff encourage children to have fun singing, chanting rhymes and using lively actions to extend children's communication skills and vocabulary. This helps babies and toddlers recognise rhythmic patterns ready for communicating. Older children listen well to instructions in a yoga lesson. They take turns to speak and contribute, which helps develop their confidence in a large group. Children are developing the skills, attitudes and dispositions they need to prepare them for their next stage of learning in school.

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

• Leaders create an ambitious curriculum that staff follow and implement well. They carefully design learning experiences that build on children's knowledge, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. As a result, children are introduced gently into their new rooms and have practised the skills they need for when it is time for them to move on. Staff work closely with other professionals and schools that children are transitioning on to.
• Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Children behave well and are kind and considerate to their friends. Staff provide good support to help them understand how to manage their own behaviour. For example, they teach children who struggle with their emotions to use deep breathing strategies to help them feel calm.
• Staff encourage children to understand the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and diet. For instance, children know the importance of good hygiene routines. They wash their hands before meals and after playing outside to support their physical health. Also, staff use mealtimes to best effect for children to develop their good manners and independence skills as they complete many of the tasks themselves.
• Staff support babies to help develop their core muscle strength and mobility well. All children enjoy fresh air and exercise in the outdoor areas. They have access to an ample range of resources. However, these areas are not as stimulating as indoors for children to extend their learning through play, such as to develop their coordination, movement and control of their bodies. Additionally, most activities set up outside have been set up by adults. This does not help to encourage children's physical exploration, imagination or natural curiosity.
• Parents speak highly of the care and support they receive from staff at the nursery. Parents are kept informed through notice boards, daily communication with staff and online contact. However, occasionally, not all parents and carers are fully involved in their children's learning. Some are not given regular information on how to further support their children's learning at home.
• Staff work well as a team and are eager and motivated to improve the provision of the nursery. They are aware of the recent improvements that have taken place and the impact these have had on children's safety, learning and development. The majority of staff are completing a variety of higher-level training courses, with the full support of the manager, who is passionate about her role and a positive role model. Leaders meet with staff regularly to discuss staff responsibilities and to promote their well-being.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• monitor the curriculum for outdoor play even more closely to provide a richer range of play experiences to further support all children's learning and development
• improve information-sharing with parents and carers to provide a consistent approach to help support children's development and learning at home.