Kindred Cambridge

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and secure, responding to the warm, nurturing environment created by staff. The sensitive settling-in procedures support children in building strong bonds with staff and feeling comfortable at the nursery. Children reflect the positive, enthusiastic attitude of staff and are eager to play and learn. For example, children work together to use guttering to make a track for the toy cars. Their enthusiasm inspires others to join in and they extend the track to go further around the garden, persevering when this does not always go as planned.

Staff are good role models and have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children respond to this and show a mature understanding of how to manage their behaviour and how this affects others. They work harmoniously together. For example, when mixing colours, children share the resources and listen carefully as others explain their findings. Ongoing explanations support children in developing a practical understanding of safety. For instance, children engaged in an activity to run toy cars up and down paper on the wall talk about the possible risks and allow one another plenty of space. Daily discussions and specific activities, such as cleaning model teeth, support children in understanding healthy lifestyle practices.

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

• Staff report that they enjoy their work. They receive effective supervision, which sensitively supports their well-being and aids them in developing their practice. Staff continuously review their work and make pertinent changes, for example, to ensure that resources reflect children's interests.
• Staff understand the nursery's practical curriculum and adapt this for each age group. They assess children well so that they understand what they are learning and can plan the next logical steps in this journey. Staff offer children an extensive selection of activities that reflect their interests and support them in making good progress. Their robust tracking aids staff in addressing any weaker areas of children's learning and in using additional funding effectively.
• Staff sensitively support children in expressing their emotions and ideas, valuing their contributions. For example, older children talk about feeling sad and what they can do to feel better, deciding that keeping busy and doing something they love help. This leads to a discussion about making cupcakes and staff note this and include it in the planning.
• Children of all ages easily access books. They enjoy reading these independently and with staff. For example, children read a favourite story and act this out using props. Children often refer to reference books for further information, such as learning about different wind instruments and the sounds they make.
• Children enjoy many opportunities to learn about differences. For instance, they share photographs of their weekend when they take home the nursery teddy.
• Children note the differences in family composition, events and traditions.
• Staff support children well in developing good language and communication skills. They respond to babies' non-verbal communication and to their babbles. They ensure that children have lots of interesting things to talk about. For example, older children arrange toy dinosaurs, describing how they are 'on top of the hill'.
• Staff usually encourage children to extend their play and thinking. For instance, staff help children to think about the vegetables they want to grow and how to protect these from the birds. However, this is not consistent and staff do not always encourage children to extend their thinking and learning to the maximum.
• Staff usually encourage children's independence. For example, children collect their plates and cups at dinnertime. However, on occasion, staff do things for children that they could do themselves, such as putting on children's coats and serving their food. This confuses children and does not fully promote their independence.
• Staff build very good partnerships with parents. They communicate well, making good use of shared information to fully understand children. Staff support parents in building on their children's learning. For instance, they lend resources to use at home. Parents speak highly of the nursery, particularly noting the good settling-in procedures and the 'nurturing, enthusiastic staff'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently build on children's skills and learning
• support staff to understand and consistently follow the nursery's agreed approaches to promoting children's independence.