Little Explorers Day Care Kent (HB) Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this inclusive and welcoming setting. Staff warmly greet children, who bounce and skip through the gate on arrival, showing their enjoyment for the day ahead. Leaders carefully plan a curriculum that is highly ambitious, with personal, social and emotional development at its core. Staff spend time getting to know children before they start, such as through home visits. This helps children feel settled and happy to attend nursery.

Staff meticulously plan a variety of trips and visits to widen and vary children's learning experiences and to help them learn about the wider world. For example, they visit a local care home and a farm and go on local walks. Where there is additional funding, it is used well to support children to access these activities. Parents appreciate the range and quality of the learning experiences children receive.

Children demonstrate a secure knowledge of the routines and boundaries positively role modelled by staff. For instance, children help to tidy away after snack time by tucking the stools under the table and sweeping the floor. Staff skilfully teach children to use glasses and crockery during snack time. For example, children confidently fill their glasses with water using the dispenser. This shows good levels of self-control and independence.

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

• Leaders are very passionate and enthusiastic about the nursery. They create a working culture where staff can have professional and challenging discussions to share their views on aspects of practice. These are used as learning opportunities for all to increase their knowledge. Staff say that they feel well supported in their roles and have good opportunities for professional development.
• All children, including those who have emerging or known special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make solid progress in their learning and development. Staff swiftly identify if any specific support is needed for children and work with parents and other professionals to source further guidance.
• Children benefit from excellent opportunities to develop their physical skills. For example, staff teach children to swim through one-to-one swimming lessons each week. Children learn how to use a range of tools to help develop their small-muscle skills, such as using hammers and nails.
• Partnership working with parents is good. Parents share very positive feedback about how staff support their children's learning and development. Parents appreciate the strong support they receive to enable them to further support their children at home.
• Staff show clear enjoyment and pleasure in being in the company of children. The team works well together and creates a calm and curious learning environment for children. Staff role model turn-taking and consideration of others. Children respond very well and their behaviour is excellent.
• Children show strong and confident communication and language skills. Staff interact positively with children through planned activities and spontaneous play. For example, younger children enjoy choosing items linked to songs and join in with actions. Older children share their favourite stories. Children continually initiate conversations and enjoy sharing stories and important information from home.
• Staff know children's individual personalities and needs very well. Staff use their knowledge to carefully plan to ensure that children feel emotionally secure. For example, they are aware that some children need a verbal discussion to help them understand the routine of the day, but others may understand better from visual information. This supports children's emotional development effectively.
• Mostly, staff implement the curriculum intention well to support children's learning. However, some staff are not consistently implementing agreed teaching approaches. This means that they are not maximising children's learning effectively.
• Children enjoy spending time playing with each other. Staff skilfully discuss each child's idea, for example building a farm with the animals. However, when children all come together for group activities, these times do not fully support the youngest children to ensure their learning is fully extended.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff further to build their knowledge of specific agreed teaching strategies as part of the curriculum to continue to build on children's learning
• expand the support for younger children during group-time activities to fully extend their engagement in learning.