Kids Allowed Knutsford

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

A child-centered approach is at the heart of this nursery. Children are excited as they enter the nursery and are happy waving goodbye to parents and carers.

Children have positive relationships with staff and feel safe and secure. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour and are good role models. This helps children form positive relationships and learn to respect and value one another.

There is a strong focus on outdoor learning and children develop a love of the outdoors. They enjoy exploring nature and the world around them. Children have the opportunities to experiment with clay and natural objects, in...cluding leaves, shells and twigs.

Children find leaves from the sycamore tree, and they squeal with excitement as they throw them in the air and watch the helicopter leaves spiral down to the floor. Staff extend the children's language, introducing words like 'spin', 'spiral' and 'helicopter'.The nursery provides an array of exciting and stimulating opportunities for children to access.

Children are eager to explore and join in the activities. For example, older children challenge themselves balancing on planks. Babies show good physical dexterity as they reach for the sensory objects which light up.

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

Staff plan opportunities based on children's interests. Overall, intentions for children's learning are understood by staff. However, this is not embedded, and staff do not always fully extend children's learning to the highest level.

Children explore real fruit and vegetables during play and staff discuss the names, shapes, texture and smell. This helps support children's knowledge of healthy food. The nursery provides healthy meals and has a well-balanced menu for all children.

Older children serve themselves lunch and scrape their plates when they have finished. This promotes independence and preparation for school.The nursery provides outings and experiences which include trips to the airport.

This provides children with first-hand experiences of the wider world, such as learning about aeroplanes. They visit a country park, collecting sticks to make their own play bonfire in nursery, complete with hot chocolate and pom-pom marshmallows. Staff use words like 'fire', 'burning' and 'melting', which extends children's vocabulary.

Partnership with parents is a real strength of the nursery. Parents can access the app, where staff provide daily updates and photos and share ideas to extend children's learning at home. For example, staff provide home learning packs with advice to support toilet training.

This helps provide continuity and aids children's progress.Communication and language are held in high regard. Children are encouraged to leave their dummy on the special 'magic dummy tree'.

Staff understand the effects dummies can have on pronunciation and speech. There is also a free book exchange where children can swap unwanted books and choose some new ones, helping them develop a love of reading.The support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is excellent.

Managers and the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator have worked closely with parents and other agencies to remove barriers to learning and secured funding for extra resources. All children are fully included and make very good progress.The nursery provides many opportunities to develop children's understanding of the world around them.

Children learn about different faiths and cultures and celebrate festivals and events, including the Queen's jubilee and Diwali. Introducing new cultural experiences helps children learn about similarities and differences.Care practices are good.

Staff provide children with lots of opportunities to wash their hands and use the toilet themselves. This encourages children to become increasingly independent.The quality of teaching is strong but not yet outstanding.

The managers create an environment that supports the intent of an ambitious curriculum. However, some staff are not fully aware of what managers intend them to teach children. This means there are slight inconsistencies in different rooms and, on occasion, staff do not provide children with greater levels of challenge in their learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an excellent culture of safeguarding in this nursery. Staff have regular training and are aware of potential risks.

They have good knowledge of the signs and symptoms of female genital mutilation, witchcraft and the 'Prevent' duty. The managers demonstrate a firm understanding of their roles and the policies and procedures that underpin their practice. They share information with agencies to make sure that children at risk are protected and supported.

Effective record-keeping and processes are in place. The premises are secure and well maintained, which contributes to keeping children safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen supervision to ensure staff understand the curriculum intent, in order to provide children with greater levels of challenge in their learning develop staff's quality of teaching to help maximize the focus on what children need to learn next.