Kingsmead Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children love coming to this inviting and stimulating nursery. Staff ensure that children enjoy and experience an exciting range of activities, indoors and outdoors. Children build on their physical skills as they climb, balance and jump. Younger children grow in confidence as they are supported to balance on beams. Older children show good control when they jump and land on the trampoline.

Children develop a love for books. They engage attentively when stories are read to them and join in with familiar phrases to show their enjoyment. Younger children develop their vocabulary as they join in with singing their favourite songs. They join in with the action when they stamp and shout out the words, 'stamp, stamp'.

Children behave well and show positive attitudes to learning. They develop good social skills as they take turns, share and play happily together. For instance, children allocate roles for different tasks in the mud kitchen.

Children show that they know the routines of the nursery. They remember that after story and rhyme time they have lunch. They become increasingly independent at managing their personal needs. Younger children try to feed themselves with a spoon, and older children learn to use a knife and fork appropriately.

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

• Leaders have made considerable improvements since the last inspection. They have reviewed the organisation of the learning environment to ensure that children can easily make independent choices in their play.
• Staff plan activities based on children's interests and needs. Children experience opportunities across all areas of learning. For example, while children play in the mud area, they count the legs on a spider.
• Children choose to work collaboratively and readily share made-up stories in their play. They imagine the climbing frame is a pirate ship, pretend a volcano is erupting and rescue a friend in the lava below.
• Children show high levels of curiosity and test out their ideas as they make up their own games. They show excitement as they push a range of wheeled toys so that they speed down the ramp.
• Overall, staff make use of opportunities to develop and extend children's communication and language skills. Younger children join in with words and actions from familiar nursery rhymes. Older children learn to use different words to describe size, such as 'huge' and 'massive'. However, when some staff interact with children they do not consistently extend children's knowledge further. For instance, children look at bugs and are asked to name them, which they already know.
• Leaders ensure that staff keep up to date with mandatory training. However, they do not always provide professional development opportunities for individual staff to strengthen their teaching skills to help children progress further in their learning.
• Children are well prepared for their next stage in education. Leaders maintain strong links with local schools, which eases children's transition to their new school. For instance, information is exchanged about children's progress and any specific needs they may have.
• Parents praise the quality of education and care their children receive. They actively work in partnership with the setting so that their children make good progress. Staff encourage parents to share their children's achievements and they use this information to plan for their children's next steps in learning.
• Staff promote respect for different cultures. Children learn about different festivals, such as the Indian festival of colours called Holi. This supports children's understanding of life in modern Britain.
• Children learn about healthy eating as they enjoy freshly cooked, balanced and nutritious meals. They learn that vegetables are good for them and make them strong. Children turn over soil in preparation to plant seeds in the vegetable patch. This helps to bring learning to life.
• Children are encouraged to take risks safely when outdoors. This promotes their willingness to have a go and test out their abilities. Children carefully step onto a tree trunk on the ground and hold their arms out to help them balance as they move forward.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus more sharply on the quality of staff's interactions to make the most of opportunities to extend children's learning further
• strengthen the support for staff's professional development, to build on their teaching skills and raise the quality of practice to the highest level.