Dilwyn Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children confidently greet staff and their friends on arrival. They happily separate from their parents and eagerly enter the playgroup. This shows they feel safe and secure. Staff have created a curriculum with a focus on supporting children to learn through play. They understand the skills children need for future learning and plan activities that help children achieve them.

Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children are highly engaged and concentrate on tasks for extended periods. Children enthusiastically join in with exciting dance sessions. They listen intently and follow instructions. Children practise their physical skills as they explore various ways of moving rhythmically to music. They negotiate space as they run, jump, gallop and learn how to skip around the room. They proudly demonstrate how they can balance in various ways.

Staff plan a routine that maximises the time children can play outside. Children develop their problem-solving skills as they negotiate how to pump water from a barrel along a network of pipes. They dig up potatoes grown earlier in the year. Staff provide additional outdoor challenges. They create obstacle courses, plan weekly visits to forest school and arrange opportunities for children to explore the play equipment in the local school. Time and opportunities to learn outdoors in the fresh air promote children's physical and mental health and well-being.

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

• Communication and language are key focuses. Staff have completed additional training to know how to fully support children. They plan focused small group and one-to-one activities to enable children to listen to others and express themselves. Staff have identified key books and songs to support children's vocabulary. Children choose to access books independently, and confidently join in with familiar songs.
• Staff support children to develop their early mathematical skills during play and routine times. They model how to count accurately and represent numbers using their fingers. They encourage children to recognise, name and explore the properties of shapes in their environment.
• Staff complete ongoing assessments of children's development, building on what children learn at home. They use this information, along with children's interests, to plan activities that promote next steps in children's development. Staff proactively communicate with parents to ensure they are kept fully informed of their children's learning and progress. They promptly identify gaps in children's learning and plan activities to help aid their development further.
• Staff ensure children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress. They make early referrals to specialist services to ensure children receive the timely support they need. This helps to prepare them for the next stage of their education. They create individual play plans for children, and break down the next steps in their development into more achievable targets. Staff review targets regularly, in partnership with parents. Staff work with other professionals to ensure education, health and care plans are in place for children that need them.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Parents speak highly about the welcoming and homely environment created by staff. They describe how their children have developed close bonds with staff. Parents appreciate how staff support and engage them, while understanding the demands of everyday family life.
• Staff provide a well-resourced learning environment both indoors and outside. They support children to respectfully take care of the setting. At tidy up time, all children work together to help put toys back where they belong. Children learn about similarities and differences between themselves and their friends. Staff provide some resources that reflect different cultures. However, they do not always support children to develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the different lifestyles and cultures of people in the wider community.
• Staff regularly reflect on their provision. They actively seek the views of children, their colleagues, parents and teachers at the local school to help them evaluate and improve their practice. Staff and committee members work with the local community to raise funds to further improve the setting. Staff explore various ways to enable children to express their thoughts and opinions. For example, children vote for their favourite songs and stories. They have also contributed to a wish list of resources that staff have added to their improvement plan.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider more ways to help children learn about other lifestyles and cultures in the wider community, to help prepare children for life in modern day Britain.