Venture Kitley Farm

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enthusiastically enter this unique and exceptional outdoor nursery. They access a broad and ambitious curriculum planned carefully around their interests and next steps in development. Children learn an excellent range of skills, such as how to plant seeds and what seeds need to grow. They problem solve together and move their seeds to the greenhouse. They collaborate effectively to make a scarecrow to protect their seeds. Children show immense curiosity and imagination as they explore what lives in the garden and how they can increase the number of bugs. Children elaborately explain how they have built the 'Bug Hotel'. They consider the need for earth for the worms and sticks and grass for the ladybirds and bees. They create a map and discuss how the bugs will follow the sign and map to find a place to rest.

Children's independence and self-help skills are enhanced as adults skilfully and quietly sing songs and rhymes to promote routines. Children immediately respond. They gather their bags and sit and talk at the snack table. They plan and enjoy a snack and story together. If they need support to open their snack, they learn to have a go themselves and then ask a friend for support before an adult. Behaviour is exceptional. Children navigate their own play while adults observe and give them space to try out new ideas. For example, a young child climbs in and out of the hammock several times, working out how to make the hammock swing and how to get out safely.

Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make exceptional progress from their starting point. Children have particularly made rapid progress in skills that the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on.

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

• Parents enthusiastically talk about their child's experience at this unique nursery. Some travel from far away to enable their children to access the experiences here. Parents feel their children really benefit from the extended opportunities to play and learn outside, to choose what they want to do and develop their ideas. They feel children are more creative, resilient and independent.
• Staff ensure parents are kept up to date daily, with regards to activities and routines. Parents regularly have updates, including photos, progress and learning steps, to support consistency. Parents have opportunities for exciting campfire evenings, where staff enthusiastically discuss and model ways to support play and learning at home.
• Managers are highly effective in supporting staff to enhance the children's experiences. They have a very solid understanding of how children learn and provide an exceptional environment that enables children to build on what they know and can do. They provide excellent support and guidance to staff around the importance of play, how to enable learning and respectful conversations. Parents feel the adults 'match the children's mood' and gently support the children to be calm and feel safe.
• Children develop a love of language. New vocabulary is introduced as children are inspired to find out about their environment and eagerly share a range of books and rhymes through the day. They relish exploring making marks and show excellent skills. For example, children pretend they are making a cake and decide they should make a list of ingredients. A child gets a clipboard and paper and makes marks for their list as the other children tell them items to go on the list.
• Early mathematical skills are developed excellently through children's play and daily activities. Children independently measure themselves against the pole and learn about shapes and patterns through stories at snack time. They show strong skills as they count seedlings and use language about measures and time as part of their play.
• Children learn about other cultures and celebrations through inspiring and interesting activities. They use an African water system called a 'Tippy Tap'. Children independently use this to wash their hands. They sample foods from different countries and learn about art from Australia.
• An excellent new addition to the nursery is the log cabin. Children enjoy the warm and cosy spaces inside. It is a space where children can warm up on cold weather days and enjoy other activities in small groups. They share books with adults, find out about healthy eating and how to look after their teeth. They are supported by nurturing adults, who provide reassurance and a sense of calm.
• Staff ensure that children have access to a wide range of natural resources to spark their imagination. For example, flour is introduced to the outside play kitchen area. Children use it for a range of purposes, they make an ice cream parlour then a cake. They add water and consider how it changes.