Cheeky Chimps

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily and settle quickly at this very welcoming and friendly pre-school. Staff are extremely warm and engaging with the children and get to know them well. Children are confident and independent, showing high levels of self-esteem.

There is a challenging and ambitious curriculum that successfully excites children and supports them to make the best possible progress in their learning and development. Staff focus particularly well on children's communication and language. This prepares them well for their future learning, including moving on to school. For example, children use different utensils to mix and pour flour. Staff encourage the children to use descriptive words to describe what they feel when they run the flour through their fingers. They introduce new words, such as 'sprinkle', demonstrating what this word means. This increases children's knowledge and understanding.

Staff have high expectations for all children. Children understand the rules and behave well. They play well with one another, take turns and share. Staff are excellent role models, and children follow their lead, showing respect and kindness towards adults and children alike.

Staff work well with parents to ensure that children's individual needs are understood and met. Parents report positively on the good communication from staff and compliment the staff on how well they are supported and involved in their children's learning.

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

• Children are very engaged and interested in the learning experiences on offer. They use a ladder outside to climb on different items, developing their gross motor skills. They use different tools as they pretend to fix the ladder and staff introduce words, such as 'wider' as they learn how to use the tools, such as the wrench and adjustable spanner. This helps to build on children's vocabulary and extends their understanding.
• Children develop a love of books and stories. They share books in groups and with their friends. Staff use prompts and props to encourage the children to think about how they or the characters in the story are feeling. This helps children to express their emotions and consider what each emotion means for them. However, during some group story times there are many distractions, such as staff setting up for lunch or children using the bathroom. This means that children do not benefit fully from all learning opportunities.
• Younger children listen to staff read the book 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. They enjoy exploring outside and collect 'wavy grass, oozy mud' and sticks to represent 'the big dark forest' in the story. This ignites children's curiosity and imagination and supports their communication and language. As a result, children competently use language to express themselves and retell the story in their own words.
• Outside, children practise their balancing as they walk along planks of wood and demonstrate good hand-eye coordination as they throw and catch balls of different sizes. They use their imagination well as they climb on the caterpillar climbing frame and tell the inspector that they are going on a journey where they will see lots of animals.
• Children thoroughly enjoy small-world play. They work well together to build a train track and act out their play ideas, using different voices for the different characters. They remain focused and engaged for long periods.
• Children follow thorough hygiene routines and have a good understanding about the importance of handwashing and eating a healthy and balanced diet. They wait patiently as they line up to wash their hands and help to prepare the snack. This builds on their independence skills and supports them to live a healthy lifestyle.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points. The pre-school's special educational needs coordinator works closely with children's key person and other professionals to ensure that any gaps in children's learning are closed quickly.
• The manager and her staff continually reflect on their practice and seek to develop and extend the provision that they provide for the children. They have recently developed their story time to include telling stories in different ways and using story maps. They have completed the garden room, 'The Ball Room', which will provide additional space and extend children's learning opportunities particularly around understanding the world.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make better use of group times, to help all children to focus consistently and fully benefit from the learning opportunities.