Butterfly Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle quickly and are good communicators. They talk to each other and staff, sharing what they have done over the weekend. Children listen and respond to staff's questions, using ever increasing complex words. They develop a love of books and enjoy stories which staff read to them. Children behave well. They patiently wait for their turn and share resources willingly. Children carefully watch the sand timer count down, commenting that it is almost their turn. Children develop good independence skills. They put on their own coats and manage their self-care needs confidently.

Children make good progress in relation to their individual starting points. Those with identified gaps in their learning are catching up, partly due to the high staff- to-child ratio. This enables children to receive almost one-to-one attention and support. Children have endless opportunities to develop their early writing skills. Mark-making materials, such as paper and crayons, are freely available which encourages children to write for a purpose during their play. Children know the daily routines well. They promptly line up to wash their hands ready for snack or lunchtime. Children enjoy daily opportunities to play outside in the fresh air, which helps to support their health and well-being.

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

• Staff observe children to find out their interests and what they can do. They use this information to plan for what children need to learn next. For example, when children share that they want to 'build London', staff plan accordingly to enable children to use their imaginative skills to create their own version of the city. Staff provide small building blocks and resources, such as hard hats, toy traffic cones and clipboards to support children's interest and play.
• Staff provide a wide range of activities for children. However, sometimes, staff are a little over eager and do not fully consider how children will access and use the resources. For example, too many foam letters in the sand tray hinders the enjoyment of children who just wish to play in the sand.
• Children enjoy creating birthday cakes from dough, which they decorate with candles and 'cook' in the toy oven. They quickly recognise the different numbers on the candles and proudly tell staff what number they have. This helps to support their mathematical development.
• Children delight in being able to decorate Christmas trees themselves. Staff provide artificial Christmas trees and a big box of tinsel and baubles. Children carefully search through the box, finding textured baubles and coloured tinsel before arranging their chosen decorations on the tree. Staff encourage children to talk about what they have found and how they are going to decorate the tree. This helps to support their communication and language skills.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents no longer enter the building but are met at the main door. This provides opportunities for parents and staff to exchange information about how their children have been at home and in the pre-school.
• Staff have regular opportunities for supervision meetings with the manager. They discuss their practice and professional development. However, training is not consistently focused on raising the quality of education to the highest level.
• Partnerships with local schools are effective. Staff share information about children's learning and development with school teachers who call or visit the pre-school. Staff also provide children opportunities to practise changing their clothes ready for physical education lessons, to help develop their confidence at being in a new environment.
• Staff have relevant contact details for local professionals, such as speech and language therapists which they can access should the need arise. This helps to provide targeted support where gaps are identified in children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to increase children's engagement in activities
• target staff training to raise the quality of education to the highest level.