Beanstalks @ Coppice

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Managers and staff are incredibly skilled in seeking out and celebrating children's individual characters. This helps them to provide a curriculum that is tailored to the needs of each child. For example, staff have identified children who need support in their personal, social and emotional development. As such, they have rearranged play space and considered the best deployment of staff to meet children's needs and keep them safe. This also helps staff to maintain a sharp focus on children's identified targets for learning. Staff's consistent modelling of impeccable social behaviour and their tireless work to encourage children are exemplary. As a result, children respond exceedingly well to boundaries and routines. Children have made significant improvements in regulating their behaviour. They skilfully verbalise their feelings to adults and peers. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), benefit fully from the curriculum. Children behave well and they are happy and very secure.

The setting's 'can-do' attitude and high aspirations can be seen in the superb staff interactions. Staff put significant importance on listening to children so they know how to help children succeed. For example, as children struggle to use pipettes to transfer water between containers, staff observe and carefully listen to the children. Staff intervene at precisely the right time and demonstrate how to keep the water in the pipette. They offer lots of encouragement as children try out this new skill. Children are delighted with their achievements.

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

• The setting has a strong and inspirational management team which is committed to providing excellence for both the children and staff who care for them. Staff feel incredibly well supported, both with their well-being and their professional development. They say they are listened to by leaders and their motivation to provide the very best for children is evident.
• Partnerships are excellent. The setting is highly regarded in the local community and staff have forged strong links with many agencies. Where children are identified with additional needs, the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) is relentless in her pursuit of appropriate services. She makes swift referrals and has developed excellent levels of communication with partners. This helps children with SEND to make exceptional progress in learning.
• The SENCo's commitment for improving outcomes for children with SEND is admirable. She consistently researches and develops practice by offering shadowing opportunities and staff discussions. The progress children make is significant. For example, children who start at the setting with little or no language can hold full and expressive conversations before they leave.
• The setting has magnificent partnerships with parents. It has recently been developing its work around oral hygiene. Parents have sent in photos of children cleaning their teeth at home. Staff use these photos as a prompt for discussions with children about foods that are good or bad for teeth.
• The skilfully planned curriculum inspires children to be motivated, curious and confident learners. Staff support children to experiment and to recall previous learning. For example, when children want to build with the snow, staff help children to think about making sandcastles. Children eagerly test out the same method with snow. They demonstrate high levels of concentration.
• Children's learning is consistently sequenced. As children build their skills, they are supported to understand the next steps in their learning. For example, while making potions, staff explain to children that using pipettes and scissors will help them to have strong fingers. They discuss that strong fingers will help them to hold a pencil as they learn to write. Children begin to understand the skills they can develop and the things they can achieve.
• Children's emotional well-being is superbly promoted. The nurturing and highly responsive staff give children many opportunities to express themselves. Staff speak to parents daily to learn about any changes at home so they can be sensitive and responsive to children's needs. The close bonds shared by children and staff are obvious as they laugh and play together. Children are happy and safe.
• Children show an excellent attitude to learning. Staff expertly intervene in play to embed learning and offer new concepts. They introduce words such as 'experiment', 'mixture' and 'liquid'. Staff discuss colours, shape, number and size. They give children time to test and explore to encourage their thinking. For example, staff ask children to consider what colour their potions will become when they mix different colours together. As a result, children develop their skills of investigation.
• Independence is strongly promoted. Children take care of their own needs. For example, they push their sleeves up before water play and manage their own lunch boxes as they unzip and open the lunch containers. Children are also eager to help their friends, which demonstrates their kindness towards others.