Ashington Minors

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish at this setting. They form friendships with one another and learn the importance of sharing. For instance, children work together to combine ingredients when making their own dough. They behave well and staff remind them to say please and thank you to others. Children remain engaged in activities and delight in exploring how colours change as they add different colourings to their prepared dough. They talk to staff with enthusiasm about the different patterns they can see in their mixture. Children continue their learning and add various natural materials into their dough, including acorns, twigs and sticks. Children use good language skills to talk about the models they have made.

Children show that they feel safe and secure in the care of staff. They seek them for comfort and climb on their lap to listen to their favourite stories. Older children show increasing levels of confidence and independence as they play. Young children dress up wearing various types of hats. They laugh as staff join in with them. Children spend long periods of time exploring paint and creating pictures. Young children use chunky crayons and chalks and make various marks. This helps to promote children's literacy skills.

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

• Leaders implement an ambitious curriculum that helps children prepare well for their next stage in learning. During the COVID-19 restrictions, the setting closed for a period of time. Since children returned to the setting, leaders and staff found some delay in children's learning, including language delay and children struggling with toilet training. Staff place a strong emphasis on helping children to develop their communication and language skills. They encourage lots of repetition of words and support children to join in with familiar stories and rhymes.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported at this inclusive setting. Leaders and staff work closely with parents and other professionals. They complete assessments of children's learning and build on their strengths. Staff put appropriate support in place to help children fulfil their potential.
• Staff follow good standards of hygiene. Sleeping children are checked frequently and children are provided with nutritious meals. Staff provide children with opportunities to be physically active in their play. For instance, children jump and stretch to catch bubbles in the outdoor area. They ride around on bikes and wheeled toys. However, staff have not considered ways to enhance children's natural curiosity to explore the world around them. There is less focus on the curriculum during outdoor play.
• Children develop good mathematical skills. They learn to weigh and measure during creative activities, such as sand play. Young children recognise shapes as they fit jigsaw pieces together. Older children recognise numbers. They match and sequence objects in size order. Children add wooden rings to hooks and solve problems, including how to make sure both sides of their structure is balanced.
• Partnership working with parents is well embedded. Parents compliment leaders and staff on the care they provide for their children. Parents explain that they are kept well informed about their children's learning. Parents are provided with activities and ideas to help continue their children's learning at home.
• Leaders complete regular supervision sessions with staff. Staff attend regular team meetings and share ideas and suggestions about improvements needed at the setting. However, leaders have not considered how to build on staffs' current knowledge and skills. For instance, staff provide less opportunities in their curriculum for children to extend their understanding of differences of communities and cultures beyond their own.
• Children are imaginative learners. They develop good hand-to-eye coordination as they use nets to catch pretend fish during water play games. Older children create structures using wooden blocks and work together to use tools to build their models.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build upon children's natural curiosity to learn and provide activities that challenge children's thinking skills, particularly in relation to outdoor play
• extend professional development opportunities to help enrich the quality of education and build on children's understanding of the differences of people and communities beyond their own.