Beehive Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children's unique starting points and family structures are taken into account when planning for their learning and development. Staff and managers know children and their families well. They work together with parents/carers to ensure that children feel welcomed, comfortable and valued in the pre-school. Staff provide children with a daily routine that promotes their independence and supports their self-care skills. For example, children are eager to come into the pre-school. They find their own picture and coat peg and automatically go to wash their hands before they settle down to play.

Staff skilfully support children's language and communication development. They introduce new words and extend children's vocabulary during activities. For instance, when rolling out dough, staff show children an 'oval' shape and ask them to roll it in their 'palms'. Experienced staff ensure that activities are made accessible for all children. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive targeted support. All children remain highly engaged in their learning for significant lengths of time. Children receive constant encouragement and praise to help them develop a can-do attitude, and they keep trying until they succeed.

Children enjoy learning about how to keep their teeth healthy. They practise brushing away food made from dough on model teeth and talk about healthy foods at mealtimes. Staff are well deployed to support children and keep them safe during their physical play. Staff provide experiences that contain suitable elements of risk and challenge to support their physical development and understanding of personal safety.

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

• Staff are clear on the well-established curriculum in place. They understand why it is important for children to learn the skills and knowledge they want them to know and remember before they leave. Children have access to experiences which help to develop their physical skills over time. For example, they handle different tools, such as dough cutters and scissors, which helps to support their pencil control and later writing skills.
• Staff provide high-quality inviting and creative activities and experiences that promote all areas of children's development. Children are eager to play and confidently access the environment. They add to the planned activities by self-selecting resources, which are readily available. Children enjoy a balance of self-directed and adult-led learning.
• Staff are alert to children's emotions and behaviour. They act quickly to resolve and avoid minor disputes. However, staff do not consistently teach children about how their actions can impact others. Occasionally, this can lead to the behaviour reoccurring. For example, not all staff take the time to explain why it is important to share resources.
• Children have ample opportunities to develop their understanding of numbers, space and shape. Staff make the most of every activity to include counting or mathematical language. For example, staff ask if they are going to put any candles 'on top' of their cakes made of dough, and then ask them to count how many they have and to guess how many more they would need to make five.
• Staff plan challenging outdoor activities for children. They incorporate risk taking, under the close supervision of staff who know when to step in and when to stand back and let children problem-solve for themselves. This helps to develop children's resilience and self-esteem and increases their physical abilities. For example, staff encourage children to scale the climbing wall on the pirate ship or complete the changeable obstacle course.
• Staff are skilled in identifying children who may benefit from additional support. They share information across the team and monitor children's behaviour and development. Staff offer support that is sensitive and personalised to children and their families. This helps children to feel secure, valued and included in all areas of the pre-school. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works closely alongside staff, other professionals and parents to ensure that children's learning and care needs are met.
• The well-established team of staff work well together, and morale is high. However, systems in place for providing staff with supervision and coaching are not yet fully effective to promote their personal effectiveness.
• Parents are happy with the level of care, support and education their children receive and say that there is no other setting that they would want their other children and younger siblings to attend. They describe how 'kind' and 'flexible' the staff are in supporting their children and helping them to support their child's learning. For example, staff provide parents with ideas on how to support children's learning at home and advice on how to promote sharing and speech development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's skills in supporting children to think through and understand the impact of their behaviour on others
• strengthen existing supervision arrangements for the manager and staff to support their ongoing professional development and teaching skills.