Let's Be Kids (Cinnamon Brow)

Inclusion: Strong standard

This is a highly inclusive setting. Staff support children who face barriers to their learning and development tremendously well. The diverse backgrounds of the children who attend indicate this is an inclusive provision where everyone is welcome, including those who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders and staff alike value children's uniqueness and celebrate their individuality. Everyone is welcome at this setting and supported to thrive.

Staff work effectively in partnership with a range of professionals. They actively seek and implement advice to strengthen their practice and better meet children's needs. For example, they collaborate with teachers, local authority advisors and speech and language professionals. These partnerships contribute to a well-coordinated approach, ensuring that children's care and learning needs are consistently and effectively met.

Staff complete plenty of training to extend their skills. Training is often focused precisely to meet the unique needs of children on roll. For instance, staff learn sign language to communicate openly and effectively with young children or those with speech delays. This impressively targeted training is a wonderful example of the staff and leaders' commitment to offering a tremendously inclusive service.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Staff adapt their teaching to enable all children to access and benefit from a range of activities. They make tasks easier or more complex depending on children's abilities and skill level. This tailored approach to planning and teaching helps to ensure that all children are well supported in their development. For instance, babies shuffle and climb on a small, age-appropriate indoor climbing frame. This enabling teaching and environment help to extend babies' confidence, core strength and physical coordination in readiness for walking and beyond.

Staff speak with ease about children's abilities and progress. Their secure knowledge is a wonderful foundation for targeted teaching. Staff complete daily observations of children and track their progress using a convenient online assessment tool. Not only do staff know what children can do, but they also extend assessments to identify gaps in children's knowledge. Staff deliver informed, tailored teaching opportunities, underpinned by effective assessment.

Leaders have designed an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum. There are very clear underpinning values incorporated into the curriculum design. The cornerstones of the curriculum are 'happiness, care, learning and quality'. These 4 values inform everything staff and leaders do each day. Therefore, this vision is well implemented and helps to ensure consistency in staff teaching. Overall, children's progress across all areas of learning is supported. However, children's learning is occasionally interrupted, such as during transitions between activities when they become unsettled. This affects their focus temporarily.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children make steady progress across all areas of their learning. Babies crawl to objects slightly out of reach and pull themselves up to standing positions, using low tables to steady themselves. Children show impressive physical skills. Older children enjoy team games to develop cooperative play and social skills. External sports teachers foster children's love of physical play through energetic activities. Babies actively join in with familiar songs, and the use of sign language helps to reinforce and extend their emerging communication skills. Younger children listen attentively to stories. They handle books with increasing confidence and demonstrate curiosity and interest in literacy from an early age.

Children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning. They confidently express their ideas and communicate their needs. Children develop increasing independence in managing their personal care, for example feeding themselves at mealtimes. They acquire the key skills and knowledge needed to support a smooth transition to school and future learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders set clear expectations for attendance from the outset, ensuring that parents understand their responsibilities. This is consistently reinforced through regular communication. As a result, parents recognise the importance of good attendance and punctuality. Children attend regularly, ensuring continuity in their learning and development.

Staff use consistent praise and encouragement to promote positive behaviour. Children respond well to this approach and are motivated by recognition, including verbal praise and supportive gestures. As a result, children behave in a cooperative and respectful manner. Staff support older children to develop an understanding of respect and tolerance. They use calm, sensitive interactions to help children manage differences of opinion and understand the feelings of others. This effectively supports children to develop empathy. Consequently, children are typically kind, courteous and considerate in their interactions.

Staff are compassionate and gentle in their daily interactions. Children benefit from positive relationships shared with kind and friendly staff. To illustrate, staff quickly offer affectionate cuddles to babies and younger children who are unsettled or unsure. They quickly regain their composure and return to play, demonstrating that these warm interactions have a positive impact on children's emotional self-esteem. Children are curious and eager to join in, exploring with intrigue and enthusiasm. This positive attitude is a great foundation for children's progress and development.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Needs attention

Sometimes, when children play independently, they have access to food, and staff are not close enough to fully promote their welfare or to minimise risks. Staff understand their responsibilities regarding safer eating. However, these procedures are not consistently implemented, particularly when activities include food. At other times of the day when children have access to food, such as mealtimes, children are closely supervised by staff. Children remain safely seated at lunchtime, and staff closely monitor their welfare. When serving food, staff remind each other of allergen information to ensure that there is a collective understanding of children's food intolerances and special dietary needs. Staff carefully check the temperature of food to ensure it is safe before serving. Mealtimes are well managed to promote children's welfare. However, this level of vigilance is not maintained when food is included in activities.

Hygiene practices are not observed by all staff when preparing baby bottles. Some staff do not understand the importance of maintaining a consistently clean space when preparing baby bottles to reduce the risk of infection. Hygiene standards are high at other times of the day, such as during nappy-changing procedures, when staff routinely clean and sterilise the space to promote children's health. Bedding is laundered regularly to minimise cross contamination of germs, and the nursery room is typically clean, tidy and well organised. Typically, leaders understand how to promote children's wellbeing, and the care provided for children generally supports their welfare. However, inconsistencies in the implementation of some policies mean that welfare and wellbeing practices are sometimes not inclusive for all.

Staff regularly check sleeping babies and young children. An alarm sounds every 5 minutes, which prompts staff to check on children's wellbeing when they sleep. These checks are rigorous and include staff monitoring the baby's chest as it rises and falls. All staff have completed safer sleeping training and implement due diligence at sleep times. This helps to ensure children's safety. Equal attention is provided to the risk assessments undertaken for older children's play. For instance, staff are cautious and closely supervise children who access large-scale playground equipment. Risk assessment procedures include all children.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Since opening the setting, leaders have expanded their services to include facilities for caring for younger children. They are continuing to grow and are currently preparing to extend into a new classroom. This expansion is being delivered to meet demand and the needs of the local community. Recent changes to the senior team, coupled with expansion to the setting, have been successfully managed by leaders to minimise the impact on children and families.

Leaders generally have secure oversight of the setting. They know what they do well and where they can improve. A detailed action plan, informed by the local authority quality team, parents and staff reflections, illustrates a joined-up commitment to development. Leaders have a positive attitude towards improvement and demonstrate drive and passion to offer children and families a high-quality service. They demonstrate exemplary determination to address the inconsistency in staff practice immediately. The leadership and governance of this setting are effective.

Parents and carers typically engage positively with staff. They benefit from regular updates about their children's progress through daily discussions. A convenient online assessment system is updated frequently by staff, which helps parents to receive in-the-moment information and have secure knowledge of their children's progress and learning.

The staff work well together, and teamwork is a notable strength. Staff comment that they feel well supported and are happy in their roles. They show commitment and enthusiasm each day, which benefits the children who are cared for by a settled, contented staff.