Binstead Stepping Stones Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and confident to start their day at this welcoming and homely pre-school. They confidently leave their parents and quickly immerse themselves in their chosen play. For example, children enjoy looking at books and completing puzzles with their friends. Children demonstrate strong attachments and relationships with nurturing staff, who know them very well. They proudly show staff their creations and invite them to join in with their play. Staff take the time to praise children for their achievements, helping them to feel proud of themselves. This helps children to feel safe, secure and have a sense of belonging.

Staff plan a wide range of activities and experiences that capture children's curiosities and interests. For example, they enjoy exploring a range of natural resources, such as lentils and rice. Children delight in making 'volcanoes' and 'mountains' as they scoop mounds of rice into heaps, using their hands and utensils. Staff skilfully extend children's language by introducing new words and their meanings, such as 'lava' and 'erupt'. This helps to support children's fine motor skills, creativity and language development. Overall, children behave well. Staff use daily routines to encourage children to share, take turns and use good manners.

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

• Children benefit from a broad and well-planned curriculum, that covers all areas of learning. Staff plan activities and experiences that they base upon children's interests and what they need to learn next. Staff quickly identify children who may need additional support and put effective targets in place, working closely with parents and other professionals. Staff use additional funding appropriately. For instance, they purchase resources and activities to support children's specific needs. This helps all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to make good progress from their starting points.
• The provider and staff are committed to evaluating the quality of the provision. For example, they use effective monitoring and assessments to adapt the environment to help children make good progress in their learning. Staff receive regular supervision sessions, where they discuss professional development and their well-being. As a result, staff feel well supported and work very effectively as a team. This reflects positively on the care and education that children receive.
• Generally, staff support children to engage well in meaningful learning. For example, children show good levels of engagement in the activities that interest them, such as planting seeds and watching them grow. However, at times, staff do not plan focused group times well enough to fully support all children's continued involvement, attention and learning. This leads to some children not gaining the full experience of the intended learning.
• Staff support children to develop their physical skills well. Children are provided with lots of fun and exciting activities to help strengthen their small muscles in their hands. For example, they squeeze tweezers together to pick up small objects and scoop lentils into different containers. In addition, children develop their core strength as they ride on tricycles and balance on tyres in the garden. These opportunities help to build on the muscles children need, in preparation for early writing skills.
• Staff are positive role models. For example, they use gentle reminders with children as they play, such as encouraging them to be kind to each other and share resources. When minor conflict occurs, staff are quick to respond. However, they are not consistent in helping children to acknowledge the feelings of other children involved. This means that children do not always understand the impact of their behaviour has on others.
• Staff work in partnership with parents well. When children first start, staff gather key information from parents and offer plenty of settling in sessions. This helps to build strong relationships. Parents are highly complimentary about the pre-school and the friendly staff team. They comment about their children's good progress, particularly in their communication and language skills. The arrangements for transitions to school is smooth. For example, staff invite teachers into the pre-school and discuss how to best support all children, including those with SEND.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to deliver activities more effectively, so all children benefit from the learning experiences and maintain engagement
• build on staff's knowledge of behaviour management strategies to help children to understand the impact of their behaviour has on others.