Kids In Bloom Prescot Town Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children's personal, social and emotional development is a priority. All children enjoy regular activities that focus on their health and well-being. For example, children participate in yoga and mindfulness sessions and learn about the importance of good dental health.

Children have daily opportunities to engage in outdoor physical play and delight in walking to places of interest in the local community. They follow stringent hygiene procedures, independently managing their self-care needs as they use the 'snuffle station'. Despite parents not being able to enter the nursery due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) restrictions, staff wo...rk hard to ensure that the drop-off arrangements provide parents with time to chat about their child's well-being.

This enables staff to support their key children effectively so that they can quickly settle and enjoy their time at nursery.Considerable thought is given to children learning about their emotions and feelings. This helps them to develop their social skills from an early age.

For example, young children use mirrors to look at their reflection. They are encouraged to use emotion spoons to help them to talk about their feelings and express themselves in social situations. Children develop empathy for others.

They are kind and caring, just like the staff, who continually promote children's confidence and resilience by using lots of praise and encouragement. This helps children to develop a positive can-do attitude.Excellent attention is given to ensuring that children are provided with experiences that promote their understanding of others and communities beyond their own.

For example, staff share their own heritage and background and teach children songs in other languages. They learn about different cultures and celebrations, deepening their appreciation of the diverse world around them.

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

The passionate manager and her dedicated staff team provide children with a rich and vibrant environment.

The activities provided reflect children's individual interests and needs. All children make good progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children are extremely happy, settled and secure.

They quickly develop warm and trusting relationships with staff because of personalised settling-in sessions and a successful key-person system. Staff know children very well. They plan a challenging curriculum that builds on what children already know and what they can already do.

Children are motivated to learn and are keen to explore the activities available. For example, older children excitedly create a volcano, mixing ingredients together to form a reaction. Toddlers manipulate play dough, developing the muscles in their hands as they squash and squeeze the dough.

Babies explore many sensory activities where they develop their confidence to feel different textures and try new things. Throughout the learning opportunities provided, children are supported by very kind and sensitive staff who are playful and enthusiastic in their approach.Overall, staff support children's emerging language skills well.

They use labelling and repetition to help reinforce children's understanding. Staff provide a running commentary as children play, explaining what they are doing and introducing new vocabulary. Furthermore, the staff have recently implemented additional language and communication strategies to help children make even more progress in this area of their learning.

However, staff are not consistent in how they use questioning to extend children's learning to a higher level.Children develop a love of literacy and the skills needed for reading and writing. For example, young children describe the spine of a book and talk about the 'blurb' that outlines the story.

They understand the roles of the author and illustrator and listen intently to the stories read by staff. Older children self-register on arrival and begin to form letters that they recognise from their names.Partnerships with parents are a particular strength of the nursery.

Staff help parents to support their child's learning at home. For example, they share the book of the month and activities that they can try at home. This helps to complement learning and further extend children's understanding.

Staff use a variety of methods to ensure that they communicate effectively with parents. Parents' comments are extremely positive. They talk fondly about the staff and the care and attention that their children receive.

Parents share how their children have made good progress since attending the nursery.The manager successfully leads a dedicated and well-qualified staff team. They work closely together to ensure that children receive good levels of care and education.

Leaders implement detailed procedures that encourage staff to reflect on their practice. Teaching is regularly observed and staff receive helpful feedback to assist them to improve further.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff are clear about their role and responsibilities. They understand their duty of care to report any signs that might suggest a child is at risk or when a family may require additional support. Furthermore, they fully understand the procedures to follow should they have concerns about a colleague's practice.

They explain where they can find contact information for appropriate agencies and who they would escalate concerns to. Staff attend regular training and leaders confirm their understanding during staff meetings and supervision sessions and through the use of questioning. In addition, designated safeguarding leads have completed further training to ensure that they are fully able to support staff and stay abreast of current legislation.

Leaders implement a robust recruitment and vetting procedure. All new staff receive a comprehensive induction and staff's ongoing suitability is continually checked.

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 confidence to consistently use appropriate questioning in order to extend children's learning to the highest level.

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