Kindred St.Ives

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create an environment that meets the needs of all children and encourages them to make good progress in their learning and development. Children become engaged in play, discovery and learning. Staff plan resources and activities that trigger children's imagination. For example, they join in as older children role-play tea parties, pretending to prepare lunch. Younger children explore the different textures of frozen lemons in the water tray. Staff enhance their sensory awareness by talking about the coolness of the ice, and the scent of the lemons. Staff sequence the learning within the curriculum, which helps children to prepare for their next stage of learning, and their move to school.

Staff are attentive and responsive, promoting children's emotional and physical well-being through consistent routines and positive interactions. Children show high levels of emotional security and form strong bonds with familiar adults. Staff use lots of praise and encouragement. They manage small conflicts by explaining to children how their friends might be feeling and modelling the expected behaviour. Children are beginning to take turns and respect the shared spaces. As a result, children behave well.

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

• All children enjoy spending time in the well-resourced outdoor areas. Babies enjoy practising their walking skills. They climb up the slide and balance at the top before sliding down. Younger children enjoy playing in the woodland garden. They collect mud in buckets and search among the leaves for toy dinosaurs. Older children climb trees and make homes for bugs. However, the planning of the curriculum for outdoor learning is not consistently implemented to help every child make the best possible progress.
• Staff collaborate with parents and other professionals to ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) get the support they need. The management and staff consider how to spend any additional funding ensuring they target any gaps in children's learning. For example, they bought a basketball hoop to help children understand purposeful throwing. This helps children to regulate their emotions while developing coordination and motor control.
• Parents are happy with the nursery. They speak highly of the management and staff support. They know the progress their children are making. Parents appreciate the time given by the nursery to support their children as they transition into different rooms and on to school. Parents feel involved in their children's learning. They enjoy taking books home to read to their children to help support home learning.
• Older children develop their fine motor skills. They enjoy using pipettes to transfer water from a large tray to a jug. Staff teach the children how to squeeze the end of the pipette to get the water, offering them encouragement as they persevere until they succeed. Children develop their hand and shoulder strength as they write and draw on clipboards as they play.
• Staff support babies as they explore different textures while searching for toy animals in the foam. Staff show a genuine interest in what children are saying and doing. However, occasionally staff are busy with routine tasks and do not consistently provide activities that match babies' individual stages of development to support them making the progress of which they are capable.
• Staff show respect for all children, recognising the crucial teaching around personal care routines. They ask children's permission before changing their nappy or wiping their nose. Children consent willingly, nodding their head.
• Staff develop children's communication and language skills effectively. Younger children practise vocabulary and expressive language as they join in familiar action songs. Babies learn sign language and build new vocabulary as staff use simple and repetitive phrases. Staff use descriptive language and ask questions that support older children's thinking skills. Older children build their understanding of language and unfamiliar words as they describe what they can see. For example, older children use natural materials to design their transient art pictures. They explain their ideas and describe the textures as smooth and rough. These sensory experiences help children to make a more lasting memory.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the planning for outside activities to engage all children to focus more and fully benefit from the learning opportunities
• strengthen the practice of staff working with babies so that children's learning experiences consistently reflect their stage of development, helping babies to develop the skills they are capable of.