Busy Bee Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and very keen to attend this warm and welcoming pre-school. Staff get to know the children well. They form warm and trusting relationships with the children and take care to ensure the youngest children feel secure. This helps every child to settle quickly and explore with confidence. Children find their friends to play with and engage well in the activities.

Staff respect children and their choices. For example, they sensitively ask before taking them to the toilet or for a nappy change, and children choose when they play outside and have a snack. Children develop excellent social skills and attitudes. Older children spontaneously help others kindly and use good manners. Staff are very good role models who have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children know, for example, that snatching would 'make our friends sad'.

Children enjoy a well-balanced curriculum and activities to support their interests and learning. They use their imaginations well in pretend play, painting and constructing models. They draw and write throughout all areas of the setting to support their early handwriting skills. Children learn about the wider community by exploring different cultural events and visiting the local church.

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

• Staff use effective systems to assess and monitor children's learning from the start. They are clear about what they intend children to learn next and plan the curriculum around these learning goals. Staff quickly identify any children who are not making expected progress, providing activities to support them closely and help them make good progress in all areas.
• Staff use their good teaching skills to motivate children to join in and build on what they already know and can do. Children learn to count and recognise numerals and shapes. However, on occasions, staff do not extend some older and more confident children's learning even further. For example, some children answer mathematical questions easily without any further challenge, and, at times, staff solve practical problems for children without encouraging them to think critically themselves.
• Children develop good physical skills. They learn to climb safely and enjoy practising their new skills as they become more confident. Staff help children learn about keeping safe, such as why it is unsafe to run indoors or push others.
• Children gain the skills they need to support them for starting school. They develop very good independence and learn to manage self-care tasks efficiently for themselves. Children learn about letters and sounds in all aspects of their play, and older children enjoy writing the letters of their names.
• Children develop a love of books and, from a young age, listen and join in lively group story times with great enthusiasm. They read books spontaneously with friends in the book corner and borrow books to read at home.
• Staff asks lots of questions to encourage children to think and talk and teach them new words regularly. However, on occasions, staff miss some younger and quieter children's voices and gestures, missing chances to enhance their communication and language skills further.
• Leaders have a good oversight of the setting and a clear ambition for developing the quality of care and learning even further. They value working in partnership with parents who share positive feedback. Parents state, for example, that their children love attending, and staff keep them updated well and offer stay-and-play sessions to get involved.
• The well-established team of staff work with enthusiasm and take pride in the care they provide. They value training and development and use what they have learned to enhance children's experiences. Staff have a good understanding of their safeguarding roles and responsibilities and the procedures to follow in the event of any concerns about a child in their care.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide older children with more challenges and opportunities to solve practical problems to enhance their learning
• develop staff interactions to encourage younger and quieter children's communication and language even further.