Brayton Busy Bees Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy. They are greeted by friendly and caring staff. Many confidently wave goodbye to their parents at the door. Children, who are a little unsure, settle quickly in the presence of their key person. Children attend settling-in sessions to ensure that they feel comfortable before their parents leave them. Parents value this and feel it helps them to settle in. This also helps to build relationships with parents and embed a strong key-person system.

Regular assessments ensure that any gaps in learning are identified. Any additional support needs are identified at the earliest possible opportunity. This ensures that specialist support can be put in place swiftly. Staff are knowledgeable about their role and how to seek additional support for children where needed. The pre-school works well with a range of other professionals to ensure that all children's needs are being met, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This means all children make good progress.

Children behave extremely well. They learn to use a range of tools safely, such as scissors and child-safe knives. A range of strategies are used to distract children from any unwanted behaviour. For example, when children draw where they are not supposed to, they are kindly reminded that paper is to draw on. This helps to support positive behaviours.

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

• The pre-school places a strong focus on supporting children's communication and language skills. Staff model a range of language during activities. For example, when preparing snacks, staff model words such as 'segments' and 'bunches' while preparing oranges and grapes. Group times further help to support children's communication through a variety of songs. Staff teach children a range of Makaton signs. This helps children to become effective and confident communicators.
• Mathematics is carefully embedded into a range of activities and routines throughout the day. For example, during a cutting activity, staff talk to children about the 'pentagon' shape. They spend time counting how many sides it has. This helps children to understand the properties of shape.
• Children are supported well to develop a love of reading. They enjoy swapping their books at the swap library, so they can take books home to enjoy with their parents. This helps children to continue their learning at home.
• The pre-school plays a large part within the community. For example, staff run a toddler group from the local community centre. Staff know the children and the community extremely well. They plan a range of experiences to support children's understanding of the world around them. For example, focus is given to ensure that children who do not have gardens at home are able to spend additional time outside. Staff identity experiences children may not have had, such as travelling on a bus. They then plan trips and outings to ensure that children have a wide range of experiences.
• Overall, there are good arrangements in place to support children's health. Supervised tooth brushing takes place to teach children about oral hygiene. Children learn about where their food comes from. Staff work with parents to promote healthy and balanced lunch boxes. However, at mealtimes, children are not given consistently clear messages about healthy eating.
• Management continuously reflect on the provision and make plans to improve. This ensures that the needs of individual children are being met. For example, they have developed areas to support children with SEND with additional funding. Staff have access to a wide range of training opportunities to develop their existing knowledge. However, systems to observe and review the delivery of the curriculum are not fully developed. This means that opportunities to improve staff's practices even further are, potentially, overlooked.
• Parents are extremely happy with the pre-school. They know that their children are making good strides in their learning, especially in their communication and language development. Staff ensure that parents are kept well informed of their children's progress. Parents receive a wide range of other helpful information, which supports them in many different aspects. This includes, for example, safeguarding and online safety, how to access any additional help if needed and ideas of how they can support children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure more consistency in implementing the setting's healthy eating policy and procedures
• enhance systems to check the delivery of the curriculum so that opportunities to improve staff's practice even further are identified and actioned.