N Family Club Kentish Town

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff at this spacious and modern nursery extend a warm welcome to children and their families. Leaders have developed highly-enabling environments that have been thoughtfully designed to meet the needs of different age groups. Children demonstrate curiosity and enjoyment as they explore these spaces and the wealth of quality resources on offer. For example, older children work together to pour sand through funnels to fill up different containers, demonstrating concentration and teamwork. Younger children show perseverance as they learn how to use remote controls to make cars move. They giggle with delight as they succeed in making the cars bump into each other.

Leaders have developed a curriculum that is highly ambitious for every child and tailored to meet the needs of individual children. Staff deliver additional activities, such as yoga and cookery classes, that enrich the curriculum. Over time, children develop a range of skills that ensure they are well prepared for their next stage of learning.

Most staff share high expectations of children's behaviour and support children to understand and manage their feelings. Staff teach children to link feelings to colours and use this language to support them to regulate their emotions. Staff model respectful relationships and mostly work together to reinforce the rules and routines of the setting. As such, the setting generally feels calm and purposeful.

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

• Leaders and staff organise a wealth of experiences to build children's understanding of the world around them. For example, older children have individual passports to record the outings they go on, including trips to care homes and places of worship. Staff also incorporate cultural events and celebrations into their planned learning, such as Pride Month, in which children explore how families come in all shapes and sizes. These experiences support all children to feel represented and included.
• Most staff are skilled at supporting children's communication and language development. For example, very young children notice a spider in the garden and staff start singing 'Incy Wincy Spider' with them. Older children, playing with toy spiders, are engaged in a lively discussion around what spiders eat. This illustrates how children are supported to develop into confident communicators.
• Staff interactions with children are generally warm and meaningful. However, this is inconsistent across the setting. Some staff are not as skilled and rather than observe or enhance play, they interrupt it by tidying away resources that children are using or asking unrelated questions. On occasion, children are disengaged for too long and nearby staff do not notice or offer support.
• However, room leaders are very aware of this and offer direction to minimise the impact of these weaker interactions on children.
• Staff are quick to identify children that may not be meeting their milestones. The special educational needs coordinator is quick to discuss these observations with parents and secure any additional support that children may need. This ensures that the curriculum is rapidly tailored to meet individual needs and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress over time.
• Leaders understand the importance of working with parents and actively encourage them into the nursery with a welcoming parents' area and a range of events for families. Parents speak very highly of the setting. They share that communication is excellent and detail the progress their children have made since joining the nursery.
• Leaders reflect on the strengths of the nursery and accurately detail the areas they wish to improve further. They are highly committed and capable of ensuring this continued improvement. Staff comment that they feel well supported by an approachable leadership team.
• Core staff know individual children very well and can talk confidently about their interests and next steps of development. They use this information to provide learning activities that engage and excite children. For instance, children share that they are having a barbecue later, so staff follow this interest and encourage children to make sausages out of play dough. As such, children are motivated to learn and make good progress from their individual starting points.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• deliver focused professional development to all staff to ensure that interactions with children are consistently high quality.