Katey’s Nursery & Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

In the short time the nursery has been open, the manager and her team have created a warm and welcoming environment. Children settle quickly because staff are caring and nurturing. Staff support babies to feel safe and secure.

They are attentive to their needs, offering reassurance and comfort. Children are motivated to learn and enjoy exploring resources independently. Staff's interactions enhance children's knowledge and skills as they play.

For example, children develop good physical skills as they manipulate dough with their hands. Staff extend children's learning as they introduce natural resources, herbs and spic...es for children to add to their dough, furthering the sensory experience. Staff place a strong focus on children's communication skills throughout the nursery.

They provide experiences to support children's language development from an early age. Babies enjoy looking at books with staff and begin to repeat familiar words. Toddlers delight in joining in with song time as they select different props to represent their chosen song.

Children join in with the actions and clap along with excitement. This helps to support children's listening and attention skills. Children learn about their wider community and benefit from regular outings to the shops, libraries and parks.

Staff provide opportunities for children to learn about different cultures as well as celebrating their own. For example, children learn songs in different languages, and the nursery is involved in supporting a charity in Malawi.

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

Parents are extremely complimentary about the service that they receive and the care of their children.

They speak very highly of staff and say they go above and beyond to support their child. Parents know what their child is working on to make progress. This helps parents to be more involved in their child's early education.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have individual plans and targets. As a result, staff are able to focus precisely on what children need to learn. For example, staff use different strategies, such as reading books from home, to help children to engage.

At other times, they help children to communicate by singing songs they are familiar with. With the help of outside professionals, staff are able to adapt targets and make changes to the curriculum. This helps children with SEND to achieve well.

Staff have a good understanding of how children learn and develop. They skilfully provide teaching that builds on what children already know and can do and plan activities that follow children's interests and what they need to learn next. Staff complete regular observations and assessments and evaluate the impact of activities on children's progress.

Staff monitor children's development closely to ensure that all children make good progress from their starting points in development.Staff work well as a team. They have regular meetings to evaluate the effectiveness of their nursery and reflect on their practice and the experiences they provide for children.

Managers make good use of supervision meetings and training to develop staff's knowledge, to help to improve their practice and outcomes for children. For example, recent planning training has supported staff in their understanding of how children learn and how best to support them.Children learn to be independent from an early age.

They have many opportunities to manage their self-care skills. For example, babies begin to feed themselves, and toddlers are encouraged to put on their own shoes before going outside. However, due to the varied ages of the children in one group, older children cannot independently access more challenging resources and activities to extend their learning even further.

At times, staff are not organised as well as possible to enable them to fully meet children's individual needs and allow them to focus on their learning. For example, children are all together for large parts of the day, and when young babies need to sleep, or older children are doing group times, this can be challenging and could be managed more effectively.The manager provides strong and effective support for her staff, and their well-being is very important.

For example, she makes external services available for staff to access support and guidance, and she provides fitness and relaxation classes.Staff talk to children in a calm manner and are good role models for positive behaviour. For example, they encourage children to say 'please' and 'thank you'.

Children learn to share resources fairly and to take turns. They display positive attitudes towards learning.Staff introduce daily routines to children and help them adopt healthy lifestyles.

For example, children learn to wash their hands before eating and learn about oral health as they brush their teeth.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a thorough knowledge of child protection issues.

They have completed training to help them recognise possible signs and symptoms of abuse and identify when a child may need additional support. The manager and staff have a good understanding of what procedures to follow should they be concerned about a child. The manager implements secure recruitment procedures and frequently checks staff's ongoing suitability to carry out their roles and responsibilities.

The premises are safe, clean and suitable to meet the needs of the children who attend. Staff help children learn how to keep themselves safe at nursery and in the local community.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support older children to more readily access challenging opportunities independently, such as by developing the environment further consider the organisation of staff to better meet children's individual needs and help them to focus and fully engage in their learning.