Kiddie Capers, Fishersgate

Kiddie Capers, Fishersgate

Unique reference number (URN): 2830951 Address: Stepping Stones Children & Family Centre, Gardner Road, Portslade, Brighton, BN41 1PN Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 24/02/2025 Registers: EYR Registered person: Kiddie Capers Childcare Ltd

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children learn in a wonderfully warm, friendly environment. Space and resources are organised well to provide inviting areas to support different types of play and learning. Children confidently navigate between each activity area with ease, knowing where to find the items that they are looking for. Staff support children to collaborate, take turns and get along with others. Children are supported to interact with others who have shared interests. For example, activities are set up to encourage peer interaction and role play, such as the well-resourced grocery shop with real food cartons and a till area.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning, showing focus and engagement when exploring the outdoor area or immersing themselves in creative tasks, such as drawing. Staff very successfully promote children's positive behaviour and attitudes to play. Leaders have provided targeted behaviour training, such as local authority inclusion mentoring, to help staff teach children practical self-regulation techniques. Daily routines are securely embedded. All children understand and follow these well, providing them a sense of security and confidence.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Leaders place a focus on working with parents and carers to promote children's attendance. They recognise the importance of encouraging children to benefit from the full breadth of the curriculum. Staff follow up with parents when children do not attend or do not arrive on time for their scheduled sessions. They work with parents to reduce and remove any barriers to attendance. For example, leaders offer flexibility regarding days, hours and regularity of attendance when appropriate. As a result, attendance has improved and is generally regular and consistent.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders and staff establish extremely secure partnerships with families. They ensure every child's individual background and changing situation is understood. They successfully support families to navigate significant life transitions. This includes moving home, shifting schedules or changes in family structures. Leaders prioritise all children's welfare and wellbeing consistently. They recognise children's individual care needs and meet these extremely well. Leaders and staff are also highly committed to meeting children's emotional needs and put this at the centre of day-to-day practice.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

To embed long-lasting healthy habits, staff follow the setting's healthy eating and food policies. They collaborate with parents and carers to ensure children have nutritious lunches. Staff use daily mealtime routines to support families and teach children what healthy eating means in practice. Highly positive relationships are built between staff and children. Children are very comfortable with all staff and approach their trusted key worker for support and reassurance. Staff deployment arrangements are very effective.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders have effective arrangements to ensure that they remain up to date with current guidance and legislation. They are skilled at adapting polices and working practices to reflect any changes. They take care to ensure that any new practices reflect the needs of all children and their families and are fully understood by staff.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders and staff accurately identify children who may require further support to meet their individual needs. Leaders work very effectively with external professionals to support these children. Leaders work with social workers and other professionals to support children and families known to social services, including attending meetings and having input into plans. Leaders and staff meticulously monitor the progress of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This supports them to plan appropriately for children's ongoing learning in a carefully sequenced way.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders go out of their way to support families, from all parts of the community, to be able to attend. This includes altering attendance patterns and times and having high regard for children's wellbeing and that of their families. Leaders have a secure understanding of the needs of the community, for example, recognising that some children lack outdoor play spaces at home. Consequently, they have designed intentional, homely learning environments that encourage exploration, featuring a large, well-planned outdoor area.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders work well with parents to gain their trust and to reduce barriers to learning. Staff ensure that they get to know each child and their needs quickly and effectively regardless of how long they have been at the setting or how regularly they attend. Leaders work with other local organisations to support families and share resources and information.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Leaders have a clear and ambitious understanding of what they want children to learn and are highly effective at supporting the community. For example, there is an effective commitment to promoting children's attendance. Leaders consistently take decisive action to remove barriers to attendance, offering flexible scheduling to help families maintain regular routines. Decisions are made consistently in the best interests of vulnerable groups. Leaders use targeted assessments and funding to support the education of disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children known or previously known to social care.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Highly effective self-evaluation supports leaders to identify strengths and areas where improvement may be needed. They are swift to take action to address these findings and make improvements. For example, leaders have identified where there are slight gaps in staff's knowledge and practice and are working to address these. This targeted support aims to raise practice to a consistently high level. Leaders precisely match high-quality professional learning to staff's individual needs. During quiet periods, such as holidays, leaders strategically allocate staff to training or deploy them to sister sites to broaden their expertise. Leaders are highly responsive to staff's changing circumstances. To maintain high standards, they thoughtfully support staff's wellbeing and manage their workloads effectively. Leaders have embedded a culture of high expectations and professionalism across the team through clear workplace guidelines, guidance, training and supervision. Regular

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

supervision is securely structured, ensuring staff feel fully supported and find clear benefit from the feedback they receive. Consequently, staff make a consistently positive contribution

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Expected standard

to the provision. For example, they suggest new learning resources and plan targeted activities that support children's progress.

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Achievement Expected standard

Overall, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and other barriers to learning, make steady progress across the curriculum. All children progress particularly well with their communication and language. They develop secure, age-appropriate verbal skills to express their needs confidently. For example, children with SEND gain the skills and confidence to communicate and build trusting relationships.

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Achievement Expected standard

Typically, children are prepared to move on to the next stage of their education. They become motivated learners and develop skills to support their independence. Children enjoy spending time with their friends, taking part in role-play activities or making use of the outdoor facilities. For example, over time, children persevere to master the skills of operating and steering scooters, taking great pride in this achievement. Children develop mathematical skills through experiences such as using money in the pretend grocery shop. They confidently use number and positional language in their everyday play. For example, they ask for the item 'behind', and count out a specific number of banknotes.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The curriculum is well thought through to reflect each child's learning needs, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other barriers to learning. Staff's interactions with children are typically effective. They get to know children well and use their knowledge to create activities and resources to support the curriculum. Leaders are aware of some slight inconsistencies with the quality of teaching and are actively implementing targeted support for staff where needed. For example, leaders are focused on supporting all staff in delivering consistent, high-quality interactions that fully extend children's learning during play. Staff use precise ongoing assessment to identify children's starting points and generally tailor teaching to their individual developmental stages.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Staff typically support communication and language skills well. They use interactions well to promote children's language, including vocabulary specific to the activity taking place. Children who may need additional help receive personalised, direct support to communicate, including being able to express their needs confidently. Children's physical development and personal, social and emotional development are introduced early and prioritised for the younger children, and this continues to be taught at an age-appropriate level for all ages. Overall, teaching is adapted so that all children enjoy their learning experiences. Leaders have effective arrangements, for instance to promote regular attendance, to support children who face barriers to their learning.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children's welfare and opportunities to learn and grow form the basis of daily life in the setting. Children experience a highly inclusive community where their unique backgrounds, challenging starting points and changing emotional states are understood well. Their personal interests and developmental goals shape daily activities and learning experiences. To ensure maximum stability, children and their families receive excellent, personalised support during life transitions, such as moving home, shifting attendance schedules or experiencing changes in family circumstances. For example, staff are extremely supportive of families during times of need, including adapting children's attendance patterns. Children benefit from the focus on providing continuity to support their emotional wellbeing.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

In this nurturing and secure atmosphere, children flourish, grow rapidly in confidence and form deep, trusting relationships with the entire team. Effective staff deployment helps to ensure children remain safe, while being gently encouraged to expand their social circles and build secure friendships. Children display highly positive behaviour and attitudes, learning to express their ideas freely and develop impressive communication skills. They confidently make independent choices about their play, which creates a genuine sense of belonging and happiness throughout the nursery.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Overall, learning experiences are rich, intentional and responsive to children's needs. Children thoroughly enjoy playing in the stimulating outdoor area that invites meaningful exploration and physical challenge. For instance, children safely navigate a wide variety of equipment and use the space available to channel their physical energy. Children receive targeted support that swiftly addresses gaps in their knowledge, accelerating progress from their individual starting points. For example, they engage in tailored communication games and storytelling sessions to boost their vocabulary, which successfully removes barriers to learning. Typically, children achieve well, are very well cared for and nurtured and remain safe, healthy and happy.

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Next steps

Leaders should sustain the work taking place to identify and address gaps in the skills and knowledge of individual members of staff.

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Address:

Stepping Stones Children & Family Centre Gardner Road, Portslade Brighton BN41 1PN

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Kiddie Capers Childcare Ltd

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, children and parents and carers during the inspection.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that the provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development, and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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