All Sorts At All Souls School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily to the setting. They receive a warm and caring welcome from familiar staff. Children develop close relationships with staff, who know them exceptionally well. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Children are enthusiastic and settle quickly in to play with their peers.

Children are curious and explore the stimulating play environment that staff specifically plan to engage all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff motivate children to spend extended periods of time on their chosen activities. They are keen to play with staff and include them in their games. For example, children gain a deeper understanding of the differences in zoo animals. They learn how elephants use their trunks to pick up food to put it in their mouths. Staff actively encourage children to think about and share their thoughts. Children say that they use knives and forks or their hands at mealtimes.

Children's behaviour is exemplary. Children build strong relationships with their peers. They are kind to each other and play cooperatively together. For example, older children naturally take turns during play in the sand. They wait patiently for each other to empty their scoops of sand to fill a pot. Other children show an increasing ability to resolve minor disputes between themselves. They work together to build a roadway for their vehicles. All children make significant and rapid progress from their starting points, which prepares them exceptionally well for their next stages in learning.

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

• The childcare manager and staff use a meticulously planned curriculum to ensure that children receive a wealth of opportunities and experiences that focus precisely on building on what children already know and can do. Staff are highly skilled to plan purposeful play experiences that provide children with challenge and engage children in learning in line with their interests. As a result, all children thrive and consistently show highly positive attitudes.
• Children have great fun and use their imaginations in the role-play areas. They purposely invite staff to join in. For example, staff sit at the hairdressing station as customers. They become fully involved and engage children in lots of interesting conversations. Children talk through the tools they are using to style hair, while they brush. They relish the praise they receive from their satisfied customer.
• All children thoroughly enjoy exerting their energy as they develop and practise their physical skills outdoors. They independently select from a range of wheeled toys to ride in the designated space. Children show increasing abilities and stop their movements to let others pass. Other children have fantastic fun as they experiment with large hoops. They follow the instructions that staff provide to successfully roll their hoops along the ground. Children chase them excitedly and laugh together with staff and their peers. Other children show determination as they attempt to rotate the hoop around their waists.
• Staff promote children's independence exceptionally well. Children expertly dress themselves and manage their self-help skills. They make choices about the resources that ignite their interest and how they want to use them. Staff actively encourage them to lead their own play and learning. For example, older children choose to create pictures of flowers using various mark-making tools. They cut out and stick their pictures. Children independently practise their writing skills to write their own names. They are keen and proud to show staff what they have made.
• All children, including those in need of support, make great strides in their speaking and listening skills. This is because staff place the utmost high priority on promoting communication and language. Children are eager to talk and share their thoughts, using well-structured sentences that include a rich and varied vocabulary. Staff expertly include new words for children to learn and understand during play. Those in need of support begin to make sounds and form words quickly. This is because of the expert help children receive from supporting professionals and highly trained staff.
• There is a highly reflective culture in this child-centred setting. Staff receive excellent support from managers, who value staff contributions to continually enhance the provision for children. Staff take ownership of their own development. They use a wealth of research and regular training opportunities to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. The manager and staff effectively identify areas they wish to work on, such as the outdoor provision, and are proactive in making changes.
• Parents say the provision their children receive is exceptional. They speak exceedingly highly of staff and managers. Parents value the regular and detailed information they receive about their children's learning and development over time. They say they gain information about what children are now learning and how they can continue this support for them at home.