Little Acorns Kindergarten

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely excited and eager to enter this warm and nurturing setting. They are met by enthusiastic staff who are passionate about their roles and who welcome children with open arms. Staff are deeply attentive and exceptionally kind, and children are made to feel like the most important people in the world.

A secret mission ignites enthusiasm as they head off to 'The Acorn Patch'. The highly knowledgeable staff support children in learning about plants in the quiet sensory garden. They learn how to use 'kind hands' to care for plants when trimming the herbs. Staff expertly expose children to new vocabulary. Children learn words like 'pungent' to describe the strong-smelling herbs. Staff listen intently as children share their knowledge on their return.

There is an immensely wide and thoughtful range of activities offered in the setting. This allows children to flourish and grow while exploring with awe and wonder. All children make excellent progress. Staff use well-planned interactions to stretch and challenge children. Staff are extremely caring and allow children to explore their emotional well-being throughout the day. They empower children to be calm and recognise the need for peace and rest with quiet safe spaces.

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

• Leaders are strong and work harmoniously to ensure that the staff team members are extremely well supported in their roles. They are provided with regular personalised support and feel extremely valued as a staff team. Leaders invest deeply in them and use their strengths to empower them. Training is meticulously planned and expertly delivered. Children benefit from additional staff skills, such as yoga, music and running. This supports the ambitious curriculum and extremely high outcomes for children.
• The setting offers a high-quality curriculum that ensures that children are extremely well prepared for the next steps in their education. Key persons know every fine detail of the children, which creates an extremely loving and nurturing environment for children to make excellent progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged children.
• Children are highly engaged and motivated across the magnificent range of activities on offer. Physical development is thoroughly threaded through all areas of learning. Children use their fine motor skills to hang up the washing with pegs and pull the basket up to the 'lighthouse keeper'. They confidently build towers and houses with bricks and expertly mix herbs with coffee beans in the mud kitchen using spoons, bowls and scales. Children engage in extended periods of uninterrupted play supported by adult interactions, allowing children to learn through discovery.
• Staff expertly support the communication and language development of the children in this language-rich environment. They share exciting action songs, such as 'Five Little Men...', and children eagerly wait their turn. Staff share stories with passion and excitement, drawing in the children with awe and anticipation. Books are weaved into every area of learning, and children use these eagerly in their play. For example, staff place menu books in the mud kitchen, where children make 'coffee' and 'flower books' in the 'florist's'. There is a 'book of the week', which allows children to learn new vocabulary. This excites and motivates them.
• Behaviour in the setting is exemplary, and the high expectations for children are evident. Children are extremely kind and thoughtful to their peers and staff. They have excellent friendships, and there is a calm, loving atmosphere where routines and transitions are seamless. Staff support this by being exceptional role models to the children.
• Families speak extremely highly of this nurturing and caring setting. They comment that staff go above and beyond to ensure that new children settle as smoothly as possible. For example, they send videos home to new parents. The communication is excellent and personalised, allowing parents to have exceptional oversight of their child's progress. Parents highly commend the setting and are extremely impressed by the quality of care of their children. Parents and staff work as one in this very strong setting.