ABC Preschool and Extra

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children of all ages are happy, confident and settled during their time in the friendly and welcoming setting. Staff have a good understanding of how to implement their chosen curriculum and ensure it is engaging and motivates all children. Staff build on children's interests effectively, and children are excited to learn. Babies learn about the different marks they can make. For example, they use trains and animals in foam to explore patterns. Older children learn how to develop their hand-eye coordination. For instance, they are keen to use tongs to 'rescue' trapped 'insects' from the 'web'. Staff teach children facts about the insects they have rescued, which the children are proud to show their friends.

Staff teach children good mathematical skills. Babies are confident to count as they play, and older children learn more complicated concepts, such as estimation. Staff are positive role models. All children are polite and behave well. Staff teach children about the expectations of their behaviour and children are kind and respectful as a result. Staff provide all children with good opportunities to develop their physical abilities. This is demonstrated when younger children learn new skills such as kicking a ball, and older children build their own obstacles, such as using planks and tyres, and navigate them safely.

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

• Management and staff use additional funding to support the individual needs of children effectively. They purchase a wide range of resources to support children's communication development.
• All staff, including management, establish positive relationships with all children and know them well. This includes fully understanding what makes them unique. This helps staff plan activities and experiences that they know will maintain children's interest. Children have a high level of curiosity and explore and investigate with confidence as they play.
• Staff support all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to make good progress. All children have a positive attitude towards their learning. Staff support all children's individual needs well. This includes supporting children to access a calm space if they feel overwhelmed.
• Staff support all children to develop good and confident communication skills. Staff give children time to think and then answer good questions that they are asked. Children are confident to make up and share their own ideas, such as during role play. All children, including babies, respond and use signing as they play. Staff interact with children well and interactions are good.
• All staff build and maintain positive partnerships with parents and keep them well informed of and involved in their children's achievements and next steps in learning. Staff help provide children with a good consistent link between home and the setting. For example, staff visit children at home when they start to get to know them well. Staff share helpful tips with parents, such as healthy lunch box ideas. Parents speak highly of the staff and comment that they are wonderful and nurturing and support all children to flourish.
• Overall, staff support children to develop some good understanding of healthy lifestyles. For example, children learn about the importance of oral health and brushing their teeth. However, at times, staff do not fully support children to fully understand the importance of following good health and hygiene practices, such as thorough handwashing routines. Therefore, staff do not consistently strengthen children's already good physical well-being even further.
• The setting is diverse and inclusive. For example, children learn about some well-known festivals, such as Chinese New Year. However, staff do not consistently provide children with more extensive opportunities to learn about other peoples' similarities and differences from around the wider world, including other languages and countries' traditions.
• Management closely monitors the quality of care and teaching that all staff provide children. As a team, they evaluate together daily and consider what is working well and what they will enhance further.
• All staff, including management, attend a vast range of training beneficial to their practice. For example, staff have recently learned about the different ways to support children to manage their feelings and emotions in safe and appropriate ways. As a result, staff are skilful in helping children to know what is expected of their behaviour, such as how to express with words if they feel frustrated rather than act it.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop children's understanding of the importance of following thorough health and hygiene routines
• extend children's knowledge and understanding of other people's similarities and differences outside of their own communities and experiences, including other languages and cultures.