Bramfield Stepping Stones Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a homely setting which children thrive in. Children excitedly arrive and take pride as they hang their belongings on their peg. An effective key-person system is in place and children have created secure attachments with staff which enable them to part with ease from their family. Children excitedly find somewhere to play, happily joining their friends. Children can independently negotiate turn-taking and, as a result, share resources well.

Staff lead a very popular circle time focused on language development. Children are excited when they see the treasure box. They ask for their favourite puppet and wait with anticipation. Each puppet is linked to a familiar song which they join in with. Children laugh as the puppet tickles them or creeps out of the box. Staff ensure that both factual books and storybooks are available in different places in the environment. Children independently access them and really enjoy retelling stories. This promotes their listening and communication skills and develops their use of vocabulary. Staff provide a variety of opportunities for children to mark make, both indoors and outside. They work collaboratively when they use paintbrushes and water to paint the fence and marvel as the wood changes colour. Children love being outside. They particularly like the sand, burying their feet in it. They enjoy competing to see how far they can jump into the sand and compare their distances.

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

• Staff prioritise building good relationships with children and their families. They use their observations and discussions to plan activities and resources to support children's ongoing development. Staff use children's interests to encourage them to engage in areas of the environment they might not ordinarily access. Staff have a clear curriculum which focuses on building children's independence and communication and language.
• Independence is highly fostered at the pre-school. Staff have high expectations of children and provide many opportunities for them to be independent within daily tasks. Children take pride when they sweep the floor, tidy their toys and put away their plates after snack. They are proactive and ask for a cloth to clean up if they spill their drink. Staff praise them, which further encourages them.
• Staff skilfully interweave mathematics into everyday routines and conversations. Children continuously demonstrate their knowledge through both child-initiated play and in response to adult-directed questions. For example, staff ask children to count the plates and work out how many are missing. Children, as a result, use numbers very capably in their play and enjoy calculations. They independently use mathematical language, such as 'long' and 'short', to compare items. They have a good understanding of positional language and have fun calling out the answer when staff ask them who is sat opposite them at snack time.
• Children know and participate in the daily routines. For example, staff signal that it is snack time and children know to tidy up and wash their hands. There are moments, however, when children spend a lot of time waiting in between transitions, which limits their time to engage in purposeful play.
• Staff use their experience to expertly judge when to intervene in children's play and introduce new concepts and vocabulary. In the current cohort, some children have an interest in dinosaurs. Staff build upon the interest by introducing children to fossils. They talk about how they are formed and children understand the concept. They enjoy touching a fossil and staff introduce vocabulary such as a 'spiral'. Children explore dinosaur skeletons and, with staff assistance, they can determine which dinosaur it is.
• The committee is fully vetted and contributes well to the management of the setting. It provides effective supervision for the manager and supports reflective practice. Staff are passionate about providing high-quality care and learning. They attend a range of training opportunities to further their professional development. Paperwork is used well to support the efficient running of the pre-school. Staff assess the risk of the building and outdoors and teach children how to keep safe. Staff have very good links with their local primary school. There are good transition procedures in place to support the children when they move to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the routines of the day to minimise children's waiting time and maximise their time spent in purposeful play.