Bratton Fleming Pre-School CIC

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive confidently and happily and enjoy their time at the setting. The warm and caring staff team settle children sensitively and they use what they know about the children to engage them in games and activities. Children feel safe and secure in staff's care.

The manager and staff plan a broad and stimulating curriculum that takes account of children's interests and what they need to learn next. Children explore the toys and resources with curiosity and are eager to take part in adult-led activities, demonstrating a positive attitude to learning. Children form close relationships with staff and invite them to join in with their games. Staff are playful and imaginative, which helps to lower children's inhibitions and supports their creative play. For example, staff pretend with great exaggeration to be scared of the toy insects that children have hidden in the imaginary food, which makes the children shriek with delight.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and the children recall the rules. Children behave well. They listen to staff, follow their instructions and play together cooperatively.

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

• Staff know the children well and assess them accurately. They recognise when children might benefit from additional help and work closely with parents and other agencies to meet the children's individual needs. Staff provide tailored support for each child to build on what they know and can do. All children make good progress in their learning.
• Staff support children's learning well, helping them to develop new skills and build their confidence. For example, children find it difficult to join construction items together at first, but they persevere with staff's encouragement and soon manage it with ease. When they have finished, they proudly show off their achievements to the staff, who praise them enthusiastically.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language well. They routinely repeat what the younger children say before responding, to model the correct pronunciation of sounds, and teach the older children new words, such as pollinate, hive and honeycomb. However, at times, staff do not support and encourage the children to think and talk about their ideas and experiences.
• Children develop a love of books from a young age. Younger children clap and cheer excitedly when staff suggest they look at a book together and during children's self-chosen play, they frequently ask staff to read to them. Pre-school children choose to look at their favourite books by themselves and concentrate well as they use the illustrations to retell or make up the story.
• Pre-school children develop good physical skills as they play and explore. For example, they carefully thread cereal hoops onto pipe cleaners, use containers to scoop, transfer and pour water and rice, and playfully spray water bottles. These activities help to build children's muscle strength, dexterity and coordination.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Staff share information with the parents about their children's progress and next steps in learning. Parents speak highly of the support they receive from the staff and manager and of the knowledge and skills their children have learned at the setting. However, the manager does not exchange information about children's care and learning with every setting that children attend.
• Staff encourage children to resolve minor issues for themselves. Pre-school children confidently let their friends know when they would like a turn with a toy once it becomes available. This helps children to develop good social skills and to play together harmoniously.
• Staff give lots of encouragement and praise to children to build their confidence to manage tasks for themselves. For instance, staff ask younger children to try to wipe their nose and to find their shoes. Pre-school children manage their toileting needs independently, feed themselves with cutlery and put on and take off their shoes.
• The manager implements safe recruitment and vetting processes to ensure that new staff are suitable for their role and that they understand their responsibilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop the curriculum for communication and language to support and encourage all children to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences
• work in partnership with all other settings that children attend to promote greater consistency in children's care and learning.