Childville @ Dagenham Parish Hall

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff are dedicated and committed to ensuring that all children receive a good-quality pre-school experience. As a result, children arrive eagerly and are excited to play and learn. They settle quickly into familiar routines and a welcoming environment. Children's behaviour is exceptional. They are extremely happy and settled in the pre-school. Staff provide consistent positive, age-appropriate boundaries for behaviour, ensuring children know what is expected of them. As a result, children listen to staff and their peers. For instance, older children remind their friends about not running in the hall as they might fall over. Children happily share resources and toys without being asked by adults and patiently wait for their turn.

Children's emotional well-being is significantly enhanced by the caring staff with whom they form close relationships. Staff are highly responsive to children's needs. For example, they instantly follow children's fascination, such as in the role-play area. Staff join in by preparing meals with rice and pasta and feed dolls. Staff listen to children's interests as they help the children to work together to create a track for cars and trains. Children benefit significantly from a wealth of activities and resources that help to develop their understanding of equality and the diverse world they live in. Children also learn about their local community and enjoy visits to the local green areas, the library and the local shops where they learn to pay with money by themselves.

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

• Regular staff supervision and monitoring of staff practice ensure that the quality of teaching is good. They also help to continually raise the quality of the curriculum. Staff are keen to learn new skills and benefit from focused professional development opportunities that help to motivate them further. Staff observations of children's learning and development are thorough and accurate. They identify children's next steps in learning and plan a wide range of opportunities that help children build on what they already know and can do.
• All groups of children are well prepared for their future learning, including starting school. For instance, staff regularly strengthen children's counting, comparing and number skills. Children enjoy sorting coloured objects into the correct containers and then count how many objects each container holds. Staff ask children appropriate questions to build on the activities. That said, staff do not always allow children enough time to respond and think through their ideas before they are asked the next question.
• Children have great opportunities to practise and develop their independence, for example in their personal hygiene routines, such as dressing themselves and washing hands after toilet routines or before sitting down to eat. Snacks are nutritious and children are gaining wide-ranging knowledge about eating healthily. Children have access to lots of exciting, physically challenging activities inside and outside. However, the organisation of daily routines means children's outdoor learning is not fully maximised.
• Staff have created an extremely stimulating environment. Consequently, children are attentive, concentrate well and become absorbed in self-chosen and adult-led activities. Staff promote children's listening and communication skills well for all age groups. They encourage children to enjoy exploring creative skills, such as creating their own stories with puppets and making models with junk materials. The staff read many different stories and sing songs and rhymes throughout the session. In this way, children become familiar with story themes, characters and wide-ranging vocabulary and language.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are superbly supported. Working partnerships promote positive outcomes for them. For example, excellent links with specialist teachers and parents help to support children's speech and language development effectively. Leaders gather and value the views of staff, other professionals and parents to consider the quality of their work and plan future developments.
• Partnerships with parents are highly effective. Parents are actively involved in all aspects of their child's learning and development. Staff keep them well informed of their child's progress through regular progress meetings and the sharing of the children's learning journal. Parents are encouraged to share their children's achievements from home. These collaborative partnerships help to enhance children's emotional well-being and confidence greatly.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children with more time to respond to questions and think through their ideas to extend their learning even further
• review the arrangements for outdoor routines to maximise on children's outdoor learning.