Kiddies Playhouse Tipton

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settled in this vibrant nursery. As they arrive, they receive a warm welcome from the kind, caring and friendly staff who make themselves available to offer reassuring cuddles. This helps children to feel secure, so they settle in very quickly.

Children have a positive attitude towards their learning and are eager to get involved in the activities provided. Babies quickly learn new words. Staff consistently interact with them and model the names for different objects they play with.

Children accurately identify the names of different animals during their play. Staff working with children aged two... and three years are finely tuned in with children's current interest in bugs. They help children use magnifying glasses to look for spiders outdoors.

They develop their hand muscles as they use large tweezers to pick up plastic bugs and practise their early writing skills when they draw spiders. Older children follow instructions as they join in with action songs outdoors. They show high levels of concentration as they listen to instructions to move their bodies in different ways.

Staff have increasingly high expectations of children. They encourage them to develop their independence by completing tasks for themselves. For example, children show control and coordination as they use a ladle to serve their own meals.

However, the organisation of routines means that older children sit for longer periods of time for snacks and meals. This impacts on the time they have available to deeply engage in their play and learning.

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

Since the last inspection, the dedicated management team has been committed to improving the quality of provision for children.

They have used self-evaluation effectively to address all weaknesses raised. Managers are passionate and demonstrate their vision for continuing to strive and provide children with the best possible experience.Managers have a secure understanding of child development and have used this to devise a coherent and well-sequenced curriculum.

They hold regular training sessions for staff to share their expectations for children's learning. Consequently, staff plan and provide experiences for children to progress in their development and prepare them for the next stage in their learning.Children are learning about staff's expectations for their behaviour.

Staff are highly responsive to occasional behavioural incidents, which helps keep children safe. Children and staff are kind towards each other. Staff support them to understand their feelings and emotions so that they can communicate these effectively.

For example, when children play with plastic potatoes with different facial features, staff model words, such as happy and sad.Managers have identified gaps in children's communication and language development in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, they give priority to focusing on this.

Managers have initiated partnership schemes with parents to help them support children's language skills at home. Staff continuously interact with children and provide them with opportunities to practise saying new words. However, they do not always explain to children the concepts of these words to help them to fully understand and use these independently to communicate.

There is a dedicated coordinator who is responsive to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. She has a secure understanding about how to assess children's development to identify possible delays. She works in partnership with other professionals to obtain support for children's individual needs.

As a result, children are supported to make the progress they are capable of.Parents are very happy with the service that the nursery provides. They say that they receive regular information about their child's play and learning.

This includes ideas about how they can extend their child's learning at home. Parents comment that staff are honest with them and go above and beyond to help children settle when they start attending.Managers have strengthened their systems for monitoring staff's teaching and practice.

They complete regular observations in the nursery environment and provide staff with targeted feedback about their performance. Staff access frequent training opportunities to improve their personal effectiveness. Consequently, the quality of education children receive has significantly improved.

However, there are still some minor inconsistencies in teaching and practice which have not yet been addressed to raise this to the highest level.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers set high expectations for staff to complete a variety of child protection training courses.

Staff are regularly questioned to ensure they have a secure and up-to-date understanding of safeguarding issues. As a result, staff are knowledgeable about signs that could indicate a child is at risk of harm. They know how to report concerns about children to other professionals.

Managers follow a rigorous recruitment procedure to assess the suitability of staff working with children. Staff understand and use risk assessment effectively to keep children safe, such as when playing outdoors during warmer weather conditions.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nembed the arrangements for the monitoring of staff's teaching and practice to continually raise this consistently to the highest level nenhance children's communication and language skills even further by supporting them to understand the concepts of new words so that use these independently and become fluent communicators review the organisation of routines, particularly for the oldest children, to extend the time available for them to engage in their play and learning.