Kindred Whitton Nursery and Pre-School

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders ensure an extremely inclusive approach across the provision. They provide regular and high quality opportunities to ensure staff are appropriately trained to implement an ambitious and inclusive curriculum. This promotes the learning and development of all children. Leaders develop highly effective professional relationships with both parents and external agencies. This contributes positively to a cohesive approach that supports children with special educational needs and disabilities to make rapid progress and fulfil their potential. Leaders ensure a thorough induction when children first start attending. This helps staff to confidently identify and assess children's individual needs. Through sensitive discussion with parents, staff implement an impactful six-week review process to decide how best to plan for children's learning. Skilful observation and monitoring impact positively on planned interventions. This supports staff to identify and plan precisely for children's next steps, which they then skilfully weave into daily activities and experiences. For example, staff consistently use simple sign language to support non-verbal children communicate effectively, and build relationships with their peers.

Leaders are clear about how they use additional funding to support children who may experience barriers to their learning. They collaborate with children's key-people to discuss how best to provide support. This helps to address any learning gaps based on children's individual learning preferences and motivations. Leaders have recently set up a lending library at the request of parents to foster children's love of books and stories and extend their early literacy skills.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have designed and embedded an ambitious and aspirational curriculum that reflects the skills and knowledge that children need to be successful and confident across all areas of learning. The curriculum is flexible, and staff take into account children's physical and emotional wellbeing in their planning. They promote physical development by ensuring that children experience physical challenges as they use large apparatus in the outdoor play space. This helps build their confidence and resilience as they persevere in active play.

Staff skilfully adapt their teaching interactions to contribute positively to the steady progress that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make. For example, they respond positively to children's non-verbal communication, such as eye gaze, pointing, and simple signing.

Staff use children's interests to engage them in play. For example, they support babies to use their senses to explore different textures with small-world farm animals as they show interest in different animal sounds. Staff model exploring the straw and cornflour gloop, to encourage babies to have a go at new experiences. This helps to build strength in the small muscles in their hands as babies scoop and squeeze.

Overall, staff support children's communication and language skills effectively. They use repetition and rhyme, number songs and familiar stories to help extend children's mathematical knowledge and language. Staff typically use open-ended questions and ensure children have sufficient time to develop their thoughts and ideas. Although on occasions, staff do not maximise opportunities for children to hear relevant and descriptive language in the context of play. For example, staff do not consistently introduce or reiterate descriptive words to extend children's understanding of volcanos as they build models using sand and water.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children make steady and secure progress from their individual starting points, supported by clear next steps that reflect their interests and learning needs. Across the setting, children enjoy songs and stories that nurture an early love of reading and strengthen their communication skills. Small group story times help them to build confidence in speaking and listening and develop early friendships. Children select the resources they'd like to play with and engage in decision making such as choosing the book of the week. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing barriers to their learning achieve well as they access a curriculum that reflects their needs. Across the setting, children typically develop the attitudes, confidence and skills across all areas of learning that they need to thrive and feel well prepared for the next stage in their learning journey.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders have established calm and consistent routines that help children understand what is expected of them. Staff use gentle, positive language to support children in understanding what is happening now and what will happen next. They ensure that transitions between activities are smooth and promote emotional wellbeing. Leaders implement robust procedures for monitoring attendance and work closely with parents to build positive habits that will support children throughout their education. They identify and respond to risks associated with non attendance, particularly for vulnerable children.

Children consistently behave well. Staff provide extremely clear and consistent guidance, and embed a warm, positive culture that helps children recognise how their actions affect others. For example, when children find turn taking or communication with others difficult, staff respond promptly and offer simple explanations and guidance to support them. Staff skilfully develop nurturing and respectful relationships with babies and children. They model kindness in every interaction, which contributes to children's sense of connection and belonging. Staff consistently share the rules with children and offer explicit praise when children remain on task. This helps children make positive behaviour choices. This positive behaviour is acknowledged thoughtfully, with children helped to understand exactly what they have done well. Small group learning further supports children in building friendships and developing empathy. For example, staff model to children how to share out resources in order to play cooperatively in the home corner role play with their peers.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Leaders support staff to understand the importance of positive relationships that support babies and children to develop a sense of belonging and connection. Staff prioritise attachment, particularly for babies, and this is evident in the warm, responsive interactions between staff and children. Care routines such as sleeping and mealtimes are sensitively managed and tailored to each child by their key person. Staff are respectful of children's privacy and dignity, for example, ensuring that babies know when they are going to have their nappies changed or their noses wiped. However, as yet, babies are not consistently supported to develop their growing self care skills during hand washing routines. This means that babies are not consistently taught the independence skills they need to develop their foundational understanding of good hygiene practices.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from high expectations and well structured routines that promote their independence appropriately. Older children demonstrate a strong awareness of their own health and safety, for example, they confidently explain how they keep outdoor play spaces safe by removing obstacles. Staff closely supervise adventurous play, offering encouragement which helps children develop their resilience. Across the nursery, staff support children to recognise and express their feelings, by consistently using emotional language and stories to deepen understanding. For example, they encourage children to talk about how characters in books may be feeling.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

There have been changes to the management of the setting since the previous inspection. Nursery leaders now work in close partnership with senior leaders across the wider organisation. They share that they benefit from a supportive and collaborative approach to leading and managing. Staff members benefit from a comprehensive training programme that helps to drive professional development across the provision. This includes developing staff knowledge of how best to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Leaders have a clear vision for the setting. They work together to consistently evaluate the provision on offer to children and identify strengths and areas for development. Leaders use this information to form an ongoing action plan to drive improvement across the setting. Leaders consistently engage in discussions with staff and parents in order to purposefully involve them in decision making to prioritise children's needs, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or other barriers to their learning.

Staff report high levels of wellbeing. They share that supervision sessions and regular 'check ins' with leaders help them to manage their workload and identify opportunities for professional development. Regular staff meetings contribute to positive communication and shared goals and priorities across the setting. Staff state that they feel 'listened to' and that their thoughts and ideas are valued by leaders. Leaders develop positive working relationships with other settings that children move onto. They share professional information in a way that supports smoother transitions for children. Close partnership working with external agencies impacts positively on the outcomes of children with SEND.