Abbeymead Under Fives Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the playgroup happy and confident. They separate from their parents or carers with ease and warmly greet staff and their peers. Children display a strong sense of belonging, independently placing their bags and coats on named pegs. Staff support children's early literacy development well. They provide children with familiar pictures displayed on name cards to help them recognise their names.

Children experience a good balance of child-led and adult-initiated play across both the indoor and outdoor areas. Staff prepare engaging activities based on children's interests, helping them to settle quickly and remain focused on their play. For example, children excitedly build towers with magnetic tiles, correctly identifying colours. They use pipettes to fill bottles of various shapes, colours and sizes. This helps them to develop strength in their hands. Staff sit alongside children to support their play. They demonstrate how to submerge and release the pipettes correctly. Children remain focused and use mathematical vocabulary, such as 'more' and 'full', with growing confidence and accuracy. Staff promote children's communication, listening and attention skills through structured group activities, such as 'bucket time'. Children sit attentively, take turns to speak and remain engaged throughout. Staff ask children questions that give them time to think and respond. For example, they ask children what they think will happen if they blow up the balloon. Children confidently count down from 10 and predict outcomes, developing their numeracy and critical thinking skills.

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

• Leaders have not kept Ofsted informed about significant changes in leadership, such as to the nominated individual and committee members of the playgroup. This means that necessary suitability checks have not been completed on some individuals. Although this is a breach of requirements, there is no impact for children's safety and welfare. Individuals who have not had their suitability verified by Ofsted do not have unsupervised access to children. Leaders acknowledge this was an oversight and are now fully aware of their duty to notify Ofsted in the future.
• Leaders and staff plan a well-sequenced curriculum that builds on what children already know and can do. They place a strong focus on supporting children's communication skills, social interactions and positive behaviour. As children move from the rising threes room to pre-school, staff raise expectations to deepen children's learning and help prepare them for their move to school.
• Staff know the children well and regularly assess their learning and development. They use information from parents about children's learning at home, along with their own observations during playgroup sessions, to plan individual next steps that support each child's progress. However, for some children, next steps are too broad and are not consistently embedded within the learning intentions of focused activities. At times, some planned activities lack purpose, and staff do not always consider what they want children to learn from these or why this is important to their progress.
• Children benefit from familiar daily routines that support their independence and help them understand expectations for their behaviour. For example, at snack time, they sit at the table and are encouraged to pour their own drinks. However, some daily routines are not consistently used to extend children's learning. Although spontaneous conversations occur, staff do not always engage children in purposeful discussions, such as those that promote their understanding of healthy food choices. After snack, children are given a sand timer and asked to wait for their peers to finish, but staff do not explain the reason for this or provide alternative activities while they are waiting.
• Leaders and staff work well together. They meet regularly to review children's progress and discuss areas for improvement. Any additional funding the playgroup receives is used effectively to support children's individual needs, such as buying new resources or training for staff. Staff feel supported in their roles, with leaders regularly checking on their well-being. Leaders target training to staff and children's needs. For example, staff recently attended training to further their skills and improve support for children with communication and language delay.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff share information with them at drop-off and collection times. Parents are invited to attend regular meetings with staff and stay-and-play sessions. This helps to keep them well informed about their child's learning and supports continuity in learning at home. Parents attend community events, such as Mother's and Father's Day celebrations, and visit the playgroup as 'mystery readers' to read to the children. This enriches children's experiences and strengthens the link between home and the playgroup.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to make children's individual next steps clear and consistently embed them within the learning intentions of focused activities to better support children's progress
• strengthen the organisation of everyday routines to ensure interactions are purposeful and consistently used to extend children's learning.