Kiddy Academy Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff work closely with parents. This helps children to settle well when they start and when they move up to the next room.

Children bring their comforters, such as special blankets, from home, which helps them to feel emotionally secure. Staff handle children's behaviour consistently, explaining how to behave appropriately so children learn to manage their own behaviour. Children enjoy activities such as yoga to help them develop a sense of well-being.

Staff know the children well. They build effectively on what children already know and can do to help them to make good progress. Children have access to a broad range ...of resources in each room, which enables them to follow their interests and initiate their own play.

They actively explore and investigate interesting items and develop the key skills needed for future learning. Babies and children enjoy a range of sensory play experiences which help to develop the finger skills they need for writing. They manipulate dough and run their fingers through foam, water, sand and paint.

Staff help children to recognise the shapes and letters being formed while making marks with sticks in a cornflour, glitter and water mix. Children confidently talk to each other, staff and visitors. They hear new words skilfully introduced by staff and use them as they play.

Managers are working closely with staff to build up their individual and team performance.

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

The manager meets regularly with the company's wider leadership and management team to share knowledge and ideas. They identify what the nursery does well and where improvements can be made.

They seek the views of children, parents and staff to help build on the quality of the setting. They are steadily reviewing all their procedures to help reduce the burden of paperwork for staff and are developing the outdoor area to provide greater opportunities for learning.The nursery has moved to this site from another site.

A few of the staff members have been recently employed or promoted. They are being supported to improve their performance through an effective buddy system and careful identification of their training needs. Although staff are developing their effectiveness as a team, individually they know each child well and are aware of each child's specific learning target.

Staff identify and regularly check what children know and can do. They make good use of this information to help identify any gaps in children's learning and make plans to close them. They actively seek support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Additional funding and good partnership working with parents and other professionals help to support children effectively.Parents are increasingly well informed about the nursery and their children's progress. They exchange information verbally and through online systems.

They are invited to 'stay-and-play days' which enable them to see what their children are doing and learning. Parents speak positively about how much their children enjoy attending and the good progress they are making. Staff agree what each child needs to learn next with their parents.

To prepare children for toilet-training, staff make good use of dolls and accessories such as potties during role play so children know what to do.Overall, children behave well for their age and stage of development. On occasion, they become distracted in whole-group activities when staff do not organise the group well enough before starting the activity.

Children are keen investigators. Staff enable children to handle and explore a wide range of different items, which also helps them to build up good physical skills and hand-to-eye coordination. For example, skilfully supported by a staff member, a baby concentrates well as she picks up small pom-poms.

An older child walks proudly around the room while carefully balancing a potato on a role-play spatula.Staff support children to talk about the similarities and differences between themselves and others effectively. One way they do this is to display good-quality photographs of the pre-school children's eyes so children can identify each other.

Children also make regular visits to the local care home, which helps them to learn about the people in their community.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Nearly all staff are trained in paediatric first aid and child protection.

They know the signs and symptoms that may indicate a child is at risk of harm and how to report concerns. Safeguarding information is displayed around the nursery, providing staff with swift access to procedures when required. Regular checks, indoors and outdoors, by staff and other agencies, such as pest control, help to keep the building safe.

Suitable recruitment, vetting and induction procedures help to ensure staff's suitability to work with children. Required staffing ratios are met and procedures to ensure children's safety are followed indoors and outdoors.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen staff's teamworking skills to help raise the quality of the provision to an even higher level refine the planning and organisation of whole-group activities to ensure children are settled and ready to engage in learning.