Challengers Guildford

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This unique setting has a very firm ethos and embedded culture to provide the best learning and play opportunities for all children. Staff constantly praise children for their successes and this helps them to build confidence in their own abilities and develop self-esteem. They are encouraged to try tasks by themselves to help them to build important independent self-help skills. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive targeted support towards their future progress and for the next steps in their development. Staff use highly effective risk assessment processes that are adapted to ensure that children have safe and secure areas to play and explore at all times. Staff are attentive, caring and show a dedication towards their roles and responsibilities. Children settle quickly into the daily routines and show a strong bond with staff and immediately seek them out for reassurance if required. Children are engaged and inquisitive in the learning environment and become excited to join in with planned activities. However, staff do not respond quickly to their emerging interests, such as helping them to express their own views and suggestions or to use simple technology to enrich their learning. Staff help children to learn about their expectations for acceptable behaviour. Children are starting to recognise and control their own emotions and to be kind and respectful towards others.

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

• Staff are well qualified and knowledgeable about how to support children's learning. They use good observations to plan for further challenges. The manager carefully monitors all children, including those with SEND, to help her to quickly identify potential gaps in their development. Information is shared with other professionals and agencies to provide children with a joined-up approach towards their future development.
• Partnerships with parents are strong and they are valued in contributing towards the next steps in their children's learning. Children and families with English as an additional language are fully supported to help them to gain a quick grasp of key words and vocabulary. Children enjoy learning about different cultures and countries from around the world to widen their experiences and awareness.
• Children have many opportunities to be physically active and to have access to fresh air and exercise. They negotiate their way around the soft-play areas and use the large-scale equipment to help them to learn how to take calculated risks in their play. Children are learning about healthy eating and making informed choices, as they explore different vegetables and investigate how they grow. This helps them to understand how they support their health and well-being.
• Staff receive high levels of support from the management team to help them to reflect on their own practice. They attend training and team meetings to plan for their professional development to increase their knowledge and understanding. A recent course on literacy for boys has helped staff to think about how they can plan more effectively in all areas of the pre-school, to improve children's interactions and participation.
• Self-evaluation is used well to identify areas for change. Parents, staff and children contribute with their views. There are plans in place to improve the outdoor area to help children to have more sensory experiences in their play.
• Children are using mathematics in their play, as they count items, problem solve when completing jigsaws and work out where to place individual pieces. They are starting to group together similar items, such as by shape and colour.
• Children excitedly join in with planned activities to help them to build on further areas of their learning. Nevertheless, staff are not quick enough to respond to children's emerging interests or to give them enough time to respond with their own comments and suggestions.
• Staff help children to become curious in the play areas and resources they use. However, they do not provide as many opportunities to help children to develop their knowledge and skills in using technology, to maximise and enrich their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to help them to quickly respond to children's emerging interests and to provide more time for children to express their own views and suggestions
• increase opportunities for children to develop their knowledge and skills in using technology, in order to maximise their learning experiences.