Bobtails Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly and find something to do as soon as they arrive. They are enthusiastic learners and enjoy coming in to see staff and their friends. Children show good problem-solving skills, for example fetching utensils from the play kitchen to transport water into a river for their toy cars. They love reading their favourite stories that staff present with an interesting selection of props to bring the book to life. Children listen to 'Dear Zoo' and act out the various animals, enthusiastically making the animal noises. They stretch up to be a giraffe and roar like a lion.

Children are often well focused and become deeply involved in some activities that spark their interests. For example, they examine spiders on a web that they find in the garden. They fetch magnifying glasses and carefully look for different features of the creatures. They compare them with toy insects they have buried in their sandpit and sing 'Incy Wincey Spider' as they investigate a spider web. Staff are adept at responding to children's interests and help them to try things for themselves. Children learn different features of materials as they explore melting and freezing. They tell adults that ice is 'solid' and water is 'liquid'.

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

• Managers have high expectations of staff and are committed to bringing about improvements to the playgroup. They have made significant changes since the last inspection and continue to identify clear priorities for development. Staff have access to a broad range of training that supports them to continue to develop their practice and raise the quality of provision.
• Staff are enthusiastic and know children's needs really well. They manage children's behaviour effectively and minor disputes are handled quickly. Children have space to explore the playgroup safely. They take managed risks, such as using scissors to cut ribbons of dinosaurs as they practise their hand skills. They are able to complete many self-care tasks, for example washing their hands and putting their own coats on. They enjoy exploring water play, tipping and pouring as they make mixtures from water, fruit juice and fresh fruit. Staff help them to learn new words. For example, they encourage children to share a different word for 'big', such as 'gigantic' and 'huge'.
• Overall, the playgroup works successfully in partnership with other settings that children attend, and with other professionals involved in children's lives. Some aspects of children's learning are not thoroughly embedded between playgroup and other settings to ensure a consistent approach. For example, staff do not ensure they follow the same method as nursery towards children's literacy development.
• Generally children are well engaged and become deeply involved in play. Some larger group activities are not as well planned for as other opportunities for learning. For example, sometimes there are not enough staff at a particular activity to deliver high-quality interactions with all the children who want to join in.
• Parents are extremely pleased with the playgroup and praise the dedication that staff showed during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. They enjoyed receiving resources, activity ideas and videos from staff, especially while isolating. This helped their children to settle back in quickly when playgroup reopened.
• Staff encourage all children's language development particularly effectively, including when children have a recognised speech delay. There are procedures in place to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The playgroup uses any additional funding successfully for children to meet their specific needs. For example, children attend for longer to help them get ready for the move to school.
• The premises are safe and secure. Managers and staff risk assess thoroughly to ensure that areas used by children are safe and suitable for their needs. Procedures, such as those to ensure the suitability of visitors to the playgroup, are robust.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to develop partnerships with other settings that children attend to promote a consistent approach to all areas of children's learning, particularly in relation to their literacy development
• manage the planning of large group activities to enable staff to meet the learning needs of any children who wish to join in more successfully.