RAFA Kidz Cranwell

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Exceptional leadership and management, and a team of highly motivated, skilled staff, underpin the success of this nursery. Children receive the highest quality of care and early education.

Because of this, children are making excellent progress. At lunch, two-year-old children show care for their friends by asking them, 'Would you like some water?'. They then carefully pour from an open jug.

Children confidently demonstrate these advanced social communication skills and refined physical development because of staff's ambitious and attentive teaching.Staff ignite children's firm love for learning by involving th...em in designing their own curriculum. Children take turns to share their thoughts and ideas which are stimulated by topical resources that staff take from the 'talking tub'.

They suggest that, as spring develops, they would like to learn about the festival of Easter and find out more about new growth outdoors. Staff support children's interest in early mark making as they record their plans on a large mind map. Staff swiftly respond to children's cues to maximise the potential for learning.

For example, they plan a series of activities to expand children's knowledge after a child shows curiosity in the seeds that they find in a pepper. Children are immersed in staff's interactive retelling of the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk', where they excitedly follow a member of staff to climb through bushes and imagine arriving at the giant's castle. In the nursery's forest school, children plant seeds of their choice and discuss what is needed to help them grow.

Children are quick to remember the rules of forest school which are in place to keep them safe. All children remain fully engaged in their learning across the nursery, throughout the day.

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

Staff's commitment to their lifelong learning means that they are constantly improving their practice.

Managers have provided a resource library of academic texts so staff can continually refresh their knowledge of how children develop. Some staff have completed work experience in a primary school to understand the full extent of a child's development and learning. This helps them to pitch their teaching at the correct level in the nursery.

The staff team across the nursery is highly skilled and qualified.Managers and staff's lived experiences, and their investment in truly understanding the community which they serve, mean they know exactly what to prioritise when designing the curriculum. A focus on supporting children's well-being stems from appreciating what it can be like for a child whose parents work for military services.

Staff arrange for a trained therapy dog to come into the nursery to support children's emotional development. A mindfulness champion makes sure that staff's teaching is ever evolving to secure maximum impact for children's personal and emotional development.Staff use an evidence-based approach to their teaching across all ages.

The strategies that they use to promote children's communication and language development are highly effective. This has helped children who have sometimes struggled with behaviour to clearly communicate their feelings, reducing their need to communicate with unwanted actions. Staff know from research that, over time, some children show less interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

These subjects are celebrated in the nursery and threaded through exciting learning that takes place indoors and outdoors.Staff make sure that children understand their wider community, through which they promote their healthy lifestyles. Children learn about Lincolnshire's agricultural heritage.

Staff take children on outings, such as strawberry picking, to help them understand where their food comes from. Where possible, the cook uses local produce from nearby butchers and greengrocers to help children to learn what food items are farmed around them.Staff skilfully deploy themselves to make sure that every child receives equal attention to their learning and play.

Children's involvement in meaningful activity remains high throughout the day. Staff have taught children social skills and self-regulation techniques so that they can continue their play independently with friends. They help children to recognise the internal feeling of frustration and anger by jumping up and down with children and asking them to feel their fast heartbeat.

They encourage children to ask for help when they start to feel like this when interacting with peers.Innovative resources designed by staff have been recognised by the wider organisation and local authority as worthy of sharing with other settings. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) has created an early intervention crib sheet.

This helps staff to quickly identify children's emerging specialist needs and tells them what to do next so children receive swift and relevant support. Staff have created a deployment bag to loan to military families. The contents, such as storybooks, help children to understand what is happening when a parent travels away for work.

The positive impact of these resources has placed them at the forefront of good practice.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

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