The Knightsbridge Kindergarten

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish in this outstanding setting. Staff are passionate and motivated to deliver a well-thought-out and purposeful curriculum. This high-quality curriculum incorporates children's individual interests and identified learning goals that are delivered through interesting topics. This has a great impact on all children and the excellent progress they make. Children show a keen interest in these activities and are proud of what they have learned.

Staff are incredibly nurturing, considerate and fantastic role models. They offer children encouragement and praise while also giving them the time and space to do things for themselves. Staff deeply embed the routine and transitions to different activities seamlessly throughout the day. Children's behaviour is exemplary. The atmosphere throughout the setting is one of genuine respect and kindness.

Staff plan countless opportunities for children to learn about the world around them. For example, children learn about London as the place they live, making key landmarks using newspaper. Staff are highly skilled communicators who create an interesting and language-rich environment. Books and stories are integral to everything staff do. Consequently, children develop a love of reading. Staff make sure that children hear stories read in the different home languages of children attending the nursery. Children see their name and words written in their alphabet. This helps children to feel valued and confident to celebrate their individuality.

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

• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive outstanding levels of support. The manager, staff and 'shadow' staff build excellent partnerships with parents and health professionals, such as behaviour therapists. Staff receive specialist training that helps them to provide exemplary care and support for children with SEND. The nursery is extremely inclusive.
• Staff talk to children about how they can keep themselves safe and healthy. They respond quickly with kindness and love to children's emotional needs. For example, staff share the visual timetable of the day to reassure children as they arrive and at other times in the day when it is needed. This ensures that staff build wonderfully caring relationships with children, which in turn helps children to feel emotionally secure.
• Staff expertly support children's language skills. Children hear new vocabulary and expertly explain the meaning of newly learned words. For example, they confidently explain the meaning of the word 'translucent' and how it is different to 'transparent'. Staff expertly join in with children's play. They enhance children's learning with appropriate conversation and questions. For example, in the outdoor area, children learn to think critically as they build a road for vehicles, carefully checking the width for the different-sized vehicles. These meaningful and purposeful interactions promote children's problem-solving and communication and language skills.
• Children show an excellent attitude to learning. Staff expertly intervene in play to embed learning and offer new concepts. They introduce activities to build children's curiosity, for instance, older children eagerly engage in a 'blubber' experiment, testing how it keeps polar bears warm. As a result, children develop their skills of investigation.
• Children have an abundance of opportunities to develop their physical skills. They demonstrate how they can balance, run and cycle in the well-resourced outdoor area. Children show great enthusiasm as they learn to take risks and fall safely in the soft-play area. Children develop their fine motor skills as they practise threading spaghetti hoops onto dry spaghetti and use large arm movements as they practise writing letters in the air. This helps to develop children's early writing skills.
• Parents are extremely complimentary in their praise for the setting. They comment that their children have developed an abundance of confidence and are highly sociable. They enjoy hearing new information that children have learned. Parents mention that they feel extremely involved in what is happening and that staff truly know their child and their individual needs.
• The manager and staff team are inspirational. Their passion and determination at providing inclusive, high-quality education and care shone through throughout the inspection. Staff praise the manager highly, and the manager actively supports their well-being and ongoing professional development. For example, staff have recently attended training on oral health and have introduced teeth cleaning with the children to enhance their understanding of the importance of oral health.