Busy Bees Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are eager to start their day at this welcoming playgroup. Staff spend time with children and get to know them when they first start. This helps children to settle quickly and form reassuring bonds with staff. Staff provide a calm environment and implement simple routines to create a safe and consistent experience for children. Children are gaining in confidence and behave well.

Children are provided with a broad curriculum that includes a range of interesting activities and experiences. Overall, these suitably capture children's attention and help children make some gains in their learning. Physical development is supported well at the setting. Children enjoy playing in the outside area, running, riding the scooters and balancing carefully on the equipment, such as the age-appropriate climbing frame. Inside, children move and stretch their bodies, for example, as they practice their yoga. Children make marks for a purpose with a range of resources. All children have fun scooping and exploring the coloured water. They use a range of containers and pipettes to transport the water, as they develop use of their hand muscles. Staff join in with children's play in ways that enhances their learning and does not interrupt their fun. For example, in the home corner children pretend to go shopping. Staff respectfully ask children if they can join in with their play, and when invited to do so, show children different ways of using resources, and model the language children need to play purposefully. This helps to increase children's developing vocabulary.

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

• Leadership of this playgroup is a real strength and has a very positive impact on staff practice and children's outcomes. Leaders ensure staff understand what, and how, they are going to be teaching children. Leaders lead by example, demonstrating what effective teaching looks like and giving useful and meaningful feedback to staff. All staff report they are supported well by leaders.
• Staff work positively with outside agencies to ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, (SEND), receive individualised support at the earliest opportunity. They ensure that children are included fully in all activities and experiences. Leaders spend additional funding effectively to enhance their provision and provide additional support to meet individual children's needs.
• Children benefit from a language-rich environment. Staff sing songs with children throughout the day, introduce new words during play and use visual aids to help children's understanding. This helps children, particularly children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to be good communicators.
• Overall, staff provide good interactions with children to support their learning.
• However, at times, although quieter children are happy, staff do not fully engage them during some activities, such as group discussions and during periods when they are outside.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents feel extremely involved and very well informed about their children's learning. Parents know their children's key worker and receive regular communication regarding their children's learning and development. Staff provide resources for parents to build on their children's learning at home.
• Children's behaviour is managed well. Staff use a range of strategies such as, reminding children to use kind hands and using sand times effectively to teach children how to share with others. Staff gently reinforce these rules throughout the day. Consequently, children play cooperatively with their friends and are learning to share and take turns.
• Partnerships with other settings are strong. For example, staff work well with the neighbouring school and teachers attend playgroup. In addition, playgroup children visit school regularly. For example, they are excited to attend the nativity play in a few weeks and see their friends from last year. This helps children to settle well into the known surroundings of school when they first start.
• Children form close relationships with their key person. Staff comfort children and offer them reassuring warmth and affection. This helps children to gain in confidence and feel safe, and secure.
• Staff use their local contacts well to help children begin to understand different people and the world around them. For example, the emergency services visit the playgroup and the 'lollypop lady,' attends to talk about road safety. In addition, staff help children understand a range of celebrations. For example, children recall prior learning as they look independently at a book about Diwali and on the day of inspection children were learning about the traditions of Thanksgiving.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop further awareness of their responses to children, such as engaging with children who may be quieter.