Kinver Garden Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a rapturous welcome when they arrive at this setting. They know each child extremely well and are genuinely interested in hearing about what they have been doing at home and special occasions they have experienced. As a result, children settle quickly into this friendly, home-from-home environment with lots of smiles and laughter. Children form close relationships with staff. They seek them out for a cuddle and take toys to them to share in their play. Children's work is displayed throughout the setting, promoting feelings of self-worth and pride in their achievements.

Staff provide an innovative and inspirational curriculum that is based on children's individual stage of development and interests. Consequently, children make rapid progress from their starting points. The environment is stimulating and interesting for children to explore and develop their natural curiosity. Children are highly motivated and eager to take part. Even the youngest children concentrate for long periods of time as they explore a vast range of exciting resources and activities. For example, babies explore the texture of shredded wheat and melted chocolate as they mix them together to make Easter nests. Older children paint rabbits using pegs and cotton wool.

Staff are highly attentive to children's individual needs. They are respectful when carrying out routine care needs, such as wiping noses or changing nappies. As a result, children's well-being is fully assured, and they feel valued. Staff act as positive role models to children. They are polite, courteous, and encourage children to use manners, share and take turns as they play.

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

• The setting benefits from a cohesive and extremely knowledgeable management team who are highly motivated and dedicated. They work closely together to provide the very best care and learning for the children who attend. They are forward thinking and continually reflect on how they can improve the already excellent provision to ensure that children's individual needs are consistently met. For example, they have recently introduced a separate room for children who are too old for the baby room but not quite ready for the older two's room. As a result, children thrive.
• Leaders have an excellent overview of how children learn at each stage of their development. They monitor the implementation of the curriculum to ensure that activities are tailored specifically to children's next steps for learning. The intent, implementation and impact for activities are displayed in each room to show what staff want children to learn, how they will achieve this and the final impact that it will have.
• Staff's well-being is given high priority. They benefit from 'duvet days' if they are employee of the month, and well-being baskets filled with treats. Staff say that leaders are wholly supportive of them and that they feel valued. Leaders recognise and work to staff's individual strengths. They nurture staff and are proud when they blossom and show their full potential. Leaders are proactive in promoting staff's professional development and provide a wealth of initiatives and training to enable staff to succeed.
• Staff meticulously observe and assess children to enable them to swiftly recognise if there are any gaps in learning or where children exceed their developmental goals. This enables them to put purposeful support strategies in place so that every child reaches their full potential.
• Children's communication is consistently promoted throughout the setting. Staff respond to babies babble and introduce different sounds for them to repeat. Staff continually talk to older children. They ask them questions and patiently wait for them to respond. They involve children in conversations and use every opportunity to introduce them to new vocabulary. Children relish story and singing time and join in enthusiastically. Younger babies sway to the music and wave their arms excitedly. Older children can recall parts of a familiar story and know the words that come next.
• Staff unreservedly foster children's independence. Even the youngest children are encouraged to have a go and persevere with simple tasks. They try hard to feed themselves and are awarded with copious amounts of praise and encouragement. Older children carefully peel the shell from an egg and shout with great excitement as they discover the yolk. They scrape butter onto their knife and meticulously spread it on bread to make sandwiches. Children's allergies and dietary requirements are given top priority during food activities to ensure children's safety while enabling them to fully participate.
• Staff share extensive amounts of information with parents about their child's day and what they have been doing. They tell them what children are working towards and provide ideas for parents to continue to support children's learning at home. Parents are overjoyed with the care and learning that their children receive. They cannot speak highly enough of the staff and say that they are amazing and children love attending.