Caterpillars Pre-School (Sussex) Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at the pre-school and become completely engrossed in their pretend play. They show great delight and enthusiasm in engaging staff in their chosen imaginative play experiences, such as making potions. Staff are skilled at weaving in what children need to learn next in these interactions, such as extending their communication and language skills. Children relish outdoor play and choose to spend most of their time in the garden. They become fully involved in developing their car wash, which staff support to great effect. Children confidently explain what they are doing and freely express their enjoyment. Mealtimes are social events where all children and staff sit together. This helps the youngest children to develop good social skills. Children talk with staff during these times about healthy eating.

The manager has clear ambitions for the care and learning of all children and shares these readily with staff. This enables them to work together in their goals for the curriculum and provide good-quality outcomes for children. Older children thoroughly enjoy their story sessions, where they pretend to go on a dragon hunt. They join in animatedly with the actions of opening the castle door. They make suggestions about what they find on their journey and excitedly run home before the dragon catches them. Children understand how to use their voices quietly or loudly to sing along to songs, enhancing their understanding of tone and rhythm.

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

• Children greet their friends warmly and with enthusiasm. For example, when a child arrived, his friend excitedly said, 'Hello, are you ok?'. Children learn the golden rules for the pre-school and staff remind children about being kind. Staff give children explanations as to why their actions are not appropriate. However, staff do not consistently explore different ways to help children to learn about working together to negotiate turn taking independently.
• Staff forge good partnerships with parents. They provide feedback to parents on a daily basis and also share developmental information using an online system and at parents' meetings. Staff actively seek the views of parents and take action to make well-targeted improvements. For example, there are plans in place to hold open days to share more about children's experiences at the setting. Parents comment positively about the setting and feel that their children have developed good levels of confidence and have improved communication skills.
• Children readily share their views with staff, who help them to extend their play and build good levels of concentration. For instance, following children's recent interest in living creatures and also about members of their families, they searched for worms in the soil. They created a family of worms, deciding on which family members they were according to their size. Staff successfully extended children's vocabulary throughout, introducing words such as 'gigantic'.
• Children who speak more than one language receive good levels of support. Staff learn key words in children's home languages. However, staff do not purposefully explore and plan ways in which they can successfully embrace the heritage and cultural backgrounds of children attending the setting. This does not fully support all children's awareness of similarities and differences in their community and the wider world.
• Staff celebrate children's new-found skills. For example, during the morning session, one child learned to pedal the tricycle. The child beamed with delight at the praise received. The staff member stated that she would complete a 'WOW' leaf for the achievement tree and that the child would have a certificate to go home. This enables parents to also be involved in this achievement as well as enhancing children's well-being.
• The provider and manager engage with staff continually to ensure that they are fully aware of any pressures on their well-being. Staff report that they feel fully supported in their roles and that they have good opportunities for professional development. They comment that the provider plans team-building events and finds varying ways to boost their well-being.
• Staff actively seek support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This enables early diagnosis and support plans to be implemented without delay so gaps in learning can be closed swiftly. Staff use additional funding children receive successfully to support each child's individual needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase staff's understanding of how to embrace children's cultural backgrounds and how to plan more effectively for this
• explore different ways to enable children to learn more about managing turn taking independently.