Be Happy Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, feel safe and are well cared for. They settle quickly on arrival at this welcoming, home-from-home setting. Children establish secure attachments with staff, and this effectively supports their emotional well-being. Children confidently reach out to staff to read books and seek cuddles when they need extra support.

Children have many opportunities during activities to support their early writing skills. For example, younger children enjoy threading and painting while older children spontaneously use chalk on an outdoor blackboard. They show their obvious pride and pleasure of their achievements as they tell staff about the different letters they have written. Children beam with delight as their key persons take photographs of them with their creations, and say they will show those to their parents.

Children benefit from plenty of fresh air and physical exercise. They eagerly engage in activities and the opportunities provided outdoors. For example, children enthusiastically ride bicycles and tricycles, and keenly kick balls. Children's interests in bugs and worms are enthusiastically promoted by staff. Children squeal with delight as they dig for worms and flip over slabs to reveal worms and beetles.

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

• Managers and staff are proud of the supportive and inclusive environment they have worked hard to create. Staff know the children well. They carry out assessments and observations, planning the next steps of learning to help them to develop. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress in their learning. The pre-school's special educational needs coordinator and management team work well with other professionals. The tailored support plans enable children to achieve their goals.
• Staff have high expectations for what children can achieve. They make use of children's focused play to support language development, such as the use of repetition to ensure children hear the correct pronunciation of words. Staff engage children in conversations and ask questions. However, on occasion, they do not give children time to process and respond to these, to promote children's thinking skills as effectively as possible.
• Leaders and staff plan and deliver an interesting curriculum that is focused on each child's assessed developmental needs. However, at times, the organisation of routines and activities can make it difficult for children to achieve the intended learning. This makes children lose their focus, and therefore they do not consistently gain the intended skills.
• The manager has a clear vision for the pre-school and understands the strengths and areas to be developed of the setting. Staff supervision and induction are good. As a result, staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities.
• Children have good opportunities to learn about different cultures and backgrounds. Staff arrange a variety of celebrations and events to help children to understand about their similarities and differences. Staff support children well to develop respectful attitudes about other people's lives that are different to their own.
• Staff use a range of effective teaching techniques to extend children's mathematical development. For instance, staff take opportunities as they arise in children's play to model mathematical language, count with children and teach them about shape and colour.
• Staff keep parents well informed about their children's development and progress. They share ideas with parents about ways they can help support their children's learning at home. Parents share they are very happy with the support given to them and their children.
• The manager uses additional funding well to support children's individual needs. For example, they offer children with SEND the one-to-one support that they require, or source resources and equipment that help all children make good progress in their learning and development.
• There is a strong focus on continually developing staff skills and knowledge. Staff make good use of knowledge they acquire from training. For example, staff have recently attended training to support them to better understand children who have been identified as being on the autistic spectrum. This knowledge enables staff to target support more effectively.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to improve teaching skills to help ensure that staff challenge and extend children's communication and learning as they play
• enhance routines and how activities are presented, so children can participate fully and gain intended knowledge and skills.