Busy Bees Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children soon settle on arrival and are inquisitive to start exploring the activities and resources. For example, they help to make the play dough, commenting on whether they need more water and strengthening their hands and fingers ready for writing, as they manipulate the dough. The effective key-person system enables children to feel secure and want to explore the well-planned environment. Staff notice when children who are new to the setting want to join whole-group activities but are unsure. They provide sensitive support, enabling children to feel confident to have a go and take part. This empowers all children to make the most of the activities and resources. Staff help children to work collaboratively. For example, together they manage to carry large objects and consider ways to solve a problem. Parents stopped entering the premises at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and most continue to pick up and drop off their children at the door, where they have daily opportunities to share important information. This new practice has had a positive impact on children by providing a calmer environment, where they settle quickly. Parents confirm how well staff work in partnership with them, especially when children have special educational needs. Parents refer to staff as 'nurturing' and say their children have better social and speaking skills since attending the pre-school.

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

• Children attend stay and play days before starting at the pre-school, where parents and children start forming bonds with their key person. They have good discussions so that staff know the children well and plan for their individual needs effectively. However, they do not seek information from other providers children already attend until their first review of their development, so they do not have as complete a picture of children as they could have.
• Staff provide successful support for children's communication and language skills. For example, they narrate what children are doing and recast what younger children say, expanding on their vocabulary. Staff role model sentence structure and recognise the importance of children's listening and understanding on their communication skills. Older children are confident communicators. For example, they fluently explain the similarities and differences between a tiger, a lion, and a zebra.
• Children learning English as an additional language and those with delay in speaking receive strong support. The manager implements her training well, providing additional one-to-one and small-group activities to promote language skills effectively. Staff actively encourage children to take familiar books home, including in dual languages where appropriate, which parents confirm has improved their children's ability to listen and concentrate. Children use books indoors and outdoors, and listen and engage with enthusiasm at story time.
• Staff use their knowledge of the children to prevent age-appropriate disagreements from escalating. They encourage children to share and provide additional resources, including visual aids for children to understand when it is someone else's turn. However, staff do not always help children to acknowledge others' feelings and consider how to resolve conflict for themselves.
• Staff consistently encourage children's independence. For example, at snack time, children cut up fruit, butter toast and pour their drinks. Staff are skilful in providing just the right amount of support to enable children to achieve things without getting frustrated. For example, young children find their own coat and confidently take it to staff for help. Staff demonstrate and give clear instructions, so children are very pleased with their own achievements.
• Children have daily opportunities to be active and choose whether to play indoors or outdoors. They balance, climb and run, demonstrating good control and coordination. Children show in their role play, discussions and daily routines that they understand the importance of healthy eating and caring for their teeth. Children have good hygiene routines, such as cleaning their hands after blowing their nose and washing their hands before eating.
• The manager and deputy provide staff with strong role models and support. They strive for high-quality care and learning in an inclusive environment. They lead a well-established, experienced team of staff who share their ambition. The leaders know their staff's strengths and areas for development. They constantly evaluate their provision, seeking opinions and questioning why they do what they do. Staff are currently embedding their new planning system and evaluating the impact the new mixed-age groups are having on children's development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff further in helping children to resolve conflicts and understand how their behaviour impacts on others
• strengthen the engagement with other settings children attend to more accurately identify and plan for children's development as soon as they start.