Bumbles Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are confident and show good levels of independence as they explore the pre-school environment. Staff are warm and approachable, and the children are settled and happy. Subsequently, children develop positive relationships with staff. Children behave very well and learn good social skills. They follow the staff's instructions and simple age-appropriate rules. Older children learn to manage their feelings and are caring towards younger children. They concentrate for extended periods. For example, children thoroughly enjoy taking part in simple role play, pretending to make tea with real tea bags, water and lemons. They create ramps and enclosures for toy vehicles and dinosaurs with construction blocks and practise their hand-to-eye coordination.

Staff provide children with a range of exciting play experiences across all areas of learning. This prepares them well for their eventual move on to school. For example, children's emerging writing skills are well supported, such as painting and mixing different colours. Children are confident to ask for help from staff when they need it, for instance when they need support handling scissors and sticky tape. Children learn about numbers and mathematics equally well. For example, children find the matching numbers on domino blocks and then predict which dominoes have the most or least dots on them.

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

• Managers and staff are dedicated and experienced. They have a secure understanding of the learning and development requirements. Staff know children's individual needs and interests very well. They carefully observe and assess what children have achieved and plan a range of interesting activities. That said, staff do not always make precise use of their observations to plan as well as possible for children's next steps in learning.
• Overall, staff promote children's listening, attention and communication skills effectively. They ask children questions about their play and model the correct use of words. However, at times, staff do not give children enough time to think through their ideas and answer the questions.
• Children have plenty of opportunities for fresh air and exercise. They free-flow around the indoor and outdoor play areas. Children enjoy balancing and climbing across an obstacle course and learn how to ride safely on tricycles and big cars. They are intrigued by looking through magnifying glasses and look closely at seeds and soil.
• Children of different age ranges play happily together for an extended period. They become completely absorbed and show good concentration as they investigate speed, cause and effect. Taking turns, they push balls from different heights and watch them cascade down water pipes.
• Staff support children's good health and effective hygiene procedures throughout the pre-school. This includes informative displays and newsletters for parents. Children wash their hands after messy play and before snacks and meals. They benefit from freshly prepared, healthy snacks that they enjoy serving for themselves.
• Partnerships with parents are well established. Parents speak highly about the staff and managers. Staff share information with parents daily, which supports children's well-being, learning and development. Parents are actively involved in their children's learning and development.
• The manager gathers the views of staff, parents and children to consider the quality of their work and plan future developments. For example, they have introduced a curiosity-based approach to extend children's engagement in their play.
• The manager has effective procedures to evaluate and improve the quality of teaching, such as regular opportunities for staff to access professional development. Staff also work well with other settings, such as feeder schools and specialist teachers, to support continuity in children's learning.
• Children make good progress from their starting points. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those in receipt of additional funding.
• Children's interest in books and reading is developed wonderfully. Children access books independently and enjoy looking through factual books with staff. Together they become immersed in comparing dinosaurs and reptiles with their own small-world dinosaurs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make accurate use of what is known about children to plan even more opportunities to support their individual next steps more fully
• give children more time to think and respond to questions, developing their communication and language skills even further.