Fontmell Magna Under Fives

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children relish attending this excellent pre-school where they feel safe to explore and learn. They arrive full of enthusiasm and quickly get involved in an interesting range of activities. For example, they explore dough using an unusual array of objects, such as real flowers, leaves, pebbles and pumpkins. Children thoroughly enjoy playing in the thoughtfully equipped outdoor play area and exploring the exciting forest environment. They develop excellent social skills. They form strong friendships and work extremely well as a team. For example, they excitedly cooperate with one another to design and build a high tower.

Staff are highly skilled at following children's interests and extending their learning. They adapt activities throughout the day to excite and inspire children's learning. For example, when children show an interest in numbered pumpkins, staff build on their curiosity and encourage them to identify the numbers and put them in order. Staff have the highest expectations for all children, whatever their starting points. They skilfully build on what they know about each child to support their learning as effectively as possible, whether indoors or outside. Children make notable progress, developing an extremely positive attitude to learning and an exceptionally strong drive to explore.

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

• Staff work exceptionally well as a team. They work closely together to ensure that they have an in-depth, shared understanding of children's care and developmental needs. They know each child extremely well and are skilled at adapting activities to extend children's individual learning and responding promptly to their interests. Staff interact extremely well with children, chatting to them about an extensive range of subjects and respecting their ideas.
• Staff are passionate about using the forest area to help children learn an extensive range of skills in a natural environment. For example, children learn how to use secateurs safely as they make stick men from twigs, and relish carefully building a pyramid of branches. They learn about boundaries and safety when they use the firepit with staff.
• Children are exceptionally well behaved. They patiently wait for their turn and willingly share and cooperate. For example, children work successfully as a team to build a wall with bricks and sand. They develop many independence skills, including washing up after snack time. Children are extremely confident in making choices about their play and focusing on activities for prolonged periods. For example, they relish making potions and get fully engaged in experimenting with pouring these in and out of bottles of different sizes and colours.
• Children are great communicators. They chat excitedly about what they are doing and frequently engage in conversation with one another and with staff.
• Staff are skilled at encouraging children's language development and helping them to catch up quickly if they have any delay.
• Children have excellent opportunities to learn about hygiene and healthy lifestyles. They know the daily routine of washing their hands before entering the pre-school and have a handwashing station in the forest area so that they can wash their hands before having their snack outdoors. The role-play area has books and signs about healthy eating to provoke conversations about this subject. Staff offer nutritious snacks to children and discuss with them what foods are good for them.
• The manager and staff provide the highest levels of support for the whole family. For example, they link with local supermarkets to offer families surplus food. They also offer recipes and ideas for healthy packed lunches. They have a book sharing scheme to encourage parents to read with their children.
• The highly-effective manager works closely with the skilled staff to ensure a shared ethos and drive for excellence. They continually reflect on, and improve, their knowledge and skills and the quality of the provision. The manager makes excellent use of staff's individual strengths and particular interests to ensure the highest quality of teaching.