Busy Bees Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children, including those who have recently started attending, demonstrate that they feel happy, safe and secure in the warm and welcoming pre-school. Leaders and staff provide an inclusive environment for all children. An effective key-person system supports children's emotional development and helps to foster early attachments so that individual children's care needs are met from the outset.

Children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning and behave well. The dedicated leader and staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and conduct. They act as positive role models, and rules and boundaries are in place to help children to understand what is expected of them.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress from their starting points. Leaders establish effective partnerships with other professionals in children's care and learning. They regularly liaise with them, follow their advice and use this information to provide targeted support for individual children. Staff promote children's communication and language skills effectively. Throughout their interactions, they provide a dialogue, repeat words and phrases and introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary. Children talk with confidence and engage in effective two-way conversations with staff, who listen with interest to what they say.

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

• Leaders are committed to providing a curriculum to ensure that all children, including those with SEND, develop the knowledge and skills they need for the next stage of their learning. Staff assess children's development to find out what they already know and can do. They use this information to identify any emerging gaps and plan for children's next steps.
• Leaders have a clear intent of what they would like children to know and to learn. They create an ambitious and well-planned curriculum. Activities are based around the children's interests and topics, and children are encouraged to join in. On some occasions, however, staff are not as confident in their understanding of what it is they want children to learn during planned activities. This means, at times, children do not have the best learning opportunities.
• Overall, teaching is good. Staff are good role models. Children eagerly engage with them in their play. However, at times, staff do not recognise children's emerging interests during these interactions. Therefore, they do not plan as effectively to extend children's learning.
• Children's physical development is well supported. Children access outdoor activities regularly. They develop their large muscles as they run and ride wheeled toys. Staff remind them to take turns, so they do not bump into each other. Children use their small hand muscles as they chop their fruit and make marks using chalk. This supports children's emerging early writing skills.
• Children have a love of books in this pre-school. They understand how books work and how to look after them carefully. Children take the time to look at books independently. They enjoy listening to stories and eagerly use words they learn, such as 'storm' and 'nocturnal', in their conversations.
• Children have opportunities to develop their mathematical skills. They keenly count how many children are present and how many candles are on their cake. Staff encourage mathematical language as they explain to children that they have cut the banana in 'half' and which is 'bigger'. This supports children to develop their mathematical knowledge.
• Partnerships with parents are a real strength at this pre-school. Parents comment that children are happy to attend, staff are friendly and they feel supported as a whole family unit. They see their children making progress and receive information daily about what children have been doing.
• Staff work well as a team. Leaders show a high regard for staff's well-being, ensuring that they feel appreciated, which helps them in fulfilling their roles and developing their practice. Staff have many opportunities to gain further knowledge and skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to have a better understanding of what children need to learn during planned activities
• strengthen staff's interactions, so they recognise children's changing interests as they join their play.