Daisy Chain Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are confident and settle quickly. They happily leave their parents at the main gate and enter the pre-school, eagerly greeting staff and their friends. Children have good independence skills. They hang up their coats and know that they need to find their name to put on the registration board.

Children have good relationships with their key person and the other staff. They enjoy reassuring cuddles and take their favourite book to staff for them to read, which helps to support early literacy skills. Children learn simple mathematical concepts as they identify shapes and colours. They use number language freely in their play. Children tell staff that their sandcastles are 'little' or 'big' and compare the sizes of the small world animals.

Children enjoy role play. They crowd around the café, keen to be the chef or customers. Play money exchanges hands in return for pretend cakes and cups of tea, which children take to the table to 'eat' with their friends. Staff join in and use related words to help extend children's communication and language skills.

All children make good progress in relation to their starting points, including those who receive additional funding. Staff decide what new resources would benefit the children the most and make careful purchases, such as role-play equipment, to help support their emotional well-being.

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

• Children enjoy playing outside. They combine mud, sticks and leaves together in the mud kitchen and ask staff for water to add to their mixture. Staff encourage children to think about what they are making and what changes occur when they add the water. Staff have created an outdoor book area in a shed for children, nicely decorated with pictures from their favourite stories on the walls. Children access this area regularly, bringing books out into the garden area to sit and look at. However, staff have yet to make the most of the outside space, particularly for those children who prefer to spend the majority of their time learning in the fresh air.
• Children, generally, enjoy group activities, such as story time and yoga sessions. However, staff do not always organise these times to meet the needs of all the children. For example, younger children are quickly distracted and get up, while older children take a more active part in the session.
• Children, generally, behave well. Staff support children to learn the importance of sharing and talk to them to explain how their actions impact on their friends. Younger children are still learning how to share and, at times, they take toys from others. Staff quickly intervene to resolve any disagreements, which helps children to learn to control their actions and develop good social skills.
• Staff regularly observe children to find out what they know and identify possible next steps in their learning. Staff decide on a weekly basis what they want children to learn next. They plan activities that support children's learning and development, as well as responding to any emerging interests.
• Partnerships with parents are good. They comment that they are very happy with the care and learning opportunities their children receive. Parents also comment that staff know their children really well and they can see the progress being made over time. During the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic lockdown, the staff emailed parents with ideas for activities they could do at home with their children. They remained in constant touch with the parents to provide support and guidance when necessary.
• The manager provides staff with regular supervision meetings to help support their professional development. Staff are currently completing higher level childcare qualifications to develop their understanding of how children learn. One member of staff has become a family practitioner and assists parents should they need advice about wider family matters.
• To help children to move smoothly to school, teachers are encouraged to visit the children in the pre-school. They receive information from staff about each child's achievements prior to starting school. This helps to support children as they make the move on to the next stage in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance staff's knowledge and skills to provide educational experiences that meet all children's needs, particularly when they are outside and taking part in group activities.