Acorn Under Fives

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are exceptionally well settled in this highly inclusive and welcoming pre-school. Staff expertly plan an extremely well-thought-out and flexible curriculum. All staff have an excellent understanding of the intentions of the curriculum, so their teaching is highly effective in continually building on what children know and can do.

Children rapidly gain important skills for life through a wide range of exciting and challenging activities. They learn how to use scissors, sewing machines and a large variety of tools safely and skilfully. For example, children develop their creative skills as they use the sewing machine under close supervision of staff. They make resources, such as bunting, doll's clothes and cushion covers for their role-play activities. Meanwhile, others learn to use saws, hammers and nails safely in the woodwork area. Highly engaging staff support children to have a go and to complete their creations. When they succeed, they beam with utter pride. Staff consistently praise children for being persistent in their approach to learning.

Staff are passionate about their work and make the children their priority. They are excellent role models and teach children to be kind and respectful to others and the environment. As a result, children show exceptionally high levels of respect for those around them. For example, staff have created a kindness tree. They reward children for their good deeds and celebrate these with a leaf on the kindness tree. This helps children to feel proud of their achievements and gives them a strong sense of belonging and self-esteem.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who receive additional funding, make excellent progress in their learning and development.

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

• Staff have implemented highly impressive and consistent routines. For example, before lunchtime, all children participate enthusiastically in daily dancing sessions. Staff and children jump, sing and balance together with utter delight. Children show tremendous levels of excitement and cooperation as they practise their physical skills. This supports their small- and large-muscle development successfully.
• Staff plan an abundance of educational learning opportunities for the children, which they know they will thoroughly enjoy. Consequently, children have impressive attitudes to their learning. For example, children are deeply engrossed when creating potions at the 'potion station'. They mix flowers and herbs they have grown in the pre-school garden. Some add colours, such as red and blue, to the mix, to see what the outcome will be. Children's faces light up as the mixture turns purple and matches the flowers.
• Staff skilfully support children's early language. For example, they suggest children identify a flower with the help of a flower encyclopaedia. Children describe the flower with words such as 'spikey', and staff praise them as they identify the plant as a 'corn flower'. Through these informative interactions, children's vocabulary is extended beautifully. This also supports their developing understanding of the natural world exceptionally well.
• Staff plan a vast amount of highly stimulating activities and provide excellent resources for the children to ignite their imagination and creativity. Children play with utter contentment with their friends in the inviting home corner area, modelling exceptional behaviour. For example, they dress up in glamorous costumes and pretend to have phone conversations with their friends. They are highly engaged as they chat to each other and immerse themselves in different characters. This supports their creative and developing social skills superbly.
• Children develop an exceptional understanding of how to keep themselves and others safe in the setting. For example, staff have created a health and safety checklist for them. Children enthusiastically check each area of the setting and tick it off their list. If they identify any risks, they tell their friends to be mindful and share their knowledge with them. This solidifies their understanding of the rules and safety procedures in the setting. Furthermore, children feel immense pride, as their input is highly praised by staff. This supports their personal development and overall well-being highly effectively.
• Partnerships with parents and other settings are exemplary. Parents know what their children are learning and how they can support their rapid progress at home. Information is shared daily via an app and linked to other providers that the children also attend. This provides excellent and consistent continuity of care.
• Staff speak highly of the manager and feel incredibly well supported. This is evident in the low staff turnover at the setting. The manager leads the pre-school with a strong sense of direction and motivates staff to continually improve their knowledge and skills. Leaders monitor, review and improve the ongoing quality of the provision. Their excellent oversight of the pre-school has ensured that the standards continually rise and the setting provides children with superb care and education.