Kids - Joy Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Staff welcome children warmly as they arrive at the nursery. They form positive relationships with children. This helps children feel safe and settle in quickly.

Staff support children's physical health effectively. For instance, they teach children to wash their hands at appropriate times and children learn how to prevent the spread of germs and infectious illnesses. Staff provide children with healthy meals and snacks to promote their good health.

Staff teach children to be independent, such as, giving them responsibilities to look after their personal needs. Children respond well to the challenge. For example, they lea...rn to put on their own coats.

Staff observe and assess children's learning. However, they do not always use the information collected to plan a targeted and ambitious curriculum. The quality of teaching is variable and does not consistently support children's learning, positive behaviour and personal development fully.

However, overall, children are motivated to learn. They enjoy participating in activities, such as making a 'penguin' collage, and staff read stories and sing songs. This helps to extend children's vocabulary.

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

The management team consists of passionate practitioners. They are skilled at supporting the welfare of children and their families, especially those from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds, by providing a safe and secure environment. Children experience playing with other children in the setting, which promotes their social skills.

Staff's observations and assessments are used to identify gaps in children's learning. They refer children who might need additional support, such as with their speech development, to other agencies appropriately. However, staff do not always use the information collected about children's learning to design a well-sequenced curriculum for both indoor and outdoor learning.

As a result, not all children make the best possible progress in the setting.Some children find planned activities, such as cutting with scissors, too challenging for their age and stage of learning. This means that some children, including some who speak English as an additional language and those that are funded, disengage and, at times, become bored and restless.

At snack and mealtimes, staff interact well with children. They eat with children and engage them in conversation. This approach promotes a sense of community, which enhances children's social connections.

Staff receive regular supervision and have opportunities to develop their skills. They complete mandatory training, such as safeguarding and first aid courses, to keep their knowledge current. This helps to protect children's welfare.

The management team acknowledges that some staff lack confidence in their approach to interacting with the children. Although staff do receive training, the impact of this on teaching practice is still in its infancy.Staff have established suitable boundaries for children's behaviour at the nursery.

However, they do not always explain why certain behaviours are inappropriate. For instance, although staff ask children to stop running or climbing, they do not state the consequences of these actions. This hinders children's progress in understanding and regulating their behaviour.

Children have opportunities for movement and exercise. They take delight in practising their physical skills, such as dancing and running. Children build their strength and gain confidence in their physical abilities.

Staff follow a rigid daily routine, which helps children know what will happen next. However, this means that staff often interrupt children in their play to move on to something else. This affects children's enjoyment and learning, such as, when they are deeply engaged in activities.

Parent partnership is strong and inclusive. Staff collaborate well with parents, welcoming individuals from all backgrounds. Parents and older siblings express satisfaction with the care and support children receive.

They describe staff as 'helpful and friendly'. Parents say this strong partnership contributes to their children's positive attitudes towards the nursery.The management team seeks input from other professionals to assess the quality of their services.

The nursery recognises some weaknesses identified during this inspection. However, the nursery's self-evaluation process is not currently driving improvements effectively to ensure the setting achieves the best possible outcomes for children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date use the information collected from observations effectively to design a targeted and ambitious indoor and outdoor curriculum that will help children make the best possible progress 28/02/2025 help staff teach children what is expected of them, so they can regulate their behaviour and understand how their actions affect others.28/02/2025 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build on the professional training opportunities for all staff to ensure that they are all confident in their teaching knowledge and practice review the daily routines to avoid interrupting children's learning and support children's enjoyment nimprove the self-evaluation process to identify areas for development and act on them as quickly as possible.