Busy Beavers Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly and demonstrate that they feel happy and secure at this warm and welcoming community playgroup. Staff well-being is high. The long-standing staff team clearly loves working here and are very fond of the children. This happy environment helps children to feel at ease and new children settle quickly. Staff make concerted efforts to learn about children's individual circumstances and to provide for these right form the start. Children, even those who are very new to the playgroup, settle very quickly to their play and receive effective support from staff to become immersed in their learning.

Staff rehearse simple, consistent rules daily with children who eagerly share their understanding of expected behaviours. Children learn from staff how to be kind, take turns and build good relationships. Staff teach children about emotions and help them to begin to manage their own feelings and behaviours. Children learn to express their ideas and make their needs known. Staff adopt a curriculum that fully includes every child. They skilfully develop activities and create an atmosphere where all children are able to play and learn together. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress in their learning.

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

• Since the last inspection, the provider has taken effective measures to address the actions set. The provider fully understands what they need to do to meet the requirement to ensure that all members of the committee are suitable. They have successfully recruited new committee members and ensured that Ofsted has been provided with the information required to complete the required checks on all committee members. The provider has implemented a robust check on children aged two that fully complies with statutory requirements and these are monitored and shared with parents.
• Parents speak very highly about playgroup and value the opportunities that staff provide their children. Parents recognise the encouragement that they receive to support children's learning of self-care skills, such as hand-washing and toilet training. They observe that communication between them and staff has improved further since the last inspection. However, staff do not yet provide tailored guidance to parents about how they can build on their individual children's specific next steps at home.
• Staff plan interesting and engaging topics for children, such as exploring animals that live under the sea. They think carefully about the vocabulary, knowledge and skills that they want children to develop. Staff ensure that linked story and reference books are available and refer to them frequently, helping children to learn that books can be a source of information. They provide many different ways for children to further their explorations, such as making their own sea creatures or practising their pencil skills by drawing and using stencils.
• Children enjoy spending time in the expansive outdoor area where they can make dens, learn ball skills and observe the world through the fence at the bottom. They learn how to independently put on their boots and coats with appropriate support from staff. Staff teach children to understand the need to wash their hands after outdoor play and they become increasingly independent in their toileting and self-care skills. They develop good physical skills and healthy habits that prepare them for life.
• Staff regularly assess children's progress in all areas. They welcome input from parents, other settings children attend, experts and other agencies to ensure a joined-up approach to children's learning. Staff use what they know to plan activities and interventions that result in all children making continuous progress. For example, planning for children who speak English as an additional language is targeted and effective. They swiftly learn key words and gain in confidence to communicate by using both verbal and non verbal means. However, planning for individual children does not always precisely target the areas that children need to develop in order to make the very best progress in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide parents with specific information and guidance in order to help them understand their children's individual next steps and provide ideas for how to support these at home
• plan more precisely for individual children's next steps to enable them to make the best possible progress.