Foxglove Violet Hill

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children learn to be confident and resilient learners at this nurturing pre-school. They arrive and confidently explore the stimulating activities indoors and in the inspiring outdoor area. Staff deploy themselves effectively and engage well with children in activities. Children of all ages show great confidence in social situations. They talk to visitors at the pre-school and engage them in conversation about their play. Children form close relationships with their peers. Staff are wonderful role models. They consistently demonstrate respectful behaviour to children and refer to them as their 'friend'.

Children demonstrate high levels of independence. Staff encourage children to wash up their own plates and cups at mealtimes. Older children enjoy taking on additional responsibilities, such as 'special helper', and excitedly help to prepare snack for their friends. Young children pour their own drinks and learn to attend to their own care needs, such as handwashing.

Children spend a significant amount of their day outdoors in the wonderful garden area. Young children laugh with friends as they crawl through the tunnels. Older children confidently balance and build with wooden planks and blocks, developing a good understanding of how to manage their own risks in play.

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

• Children show high levels of curiosity and concentration during activities. Staff allow children plenty of time to respond and share their own thoughts and ideas. They ask children thought-provoking questions when discussing the inside colour of fruits. Children make their own predictions and laugh with excitement, as they cut into a grapefruit and it reveals a red colour. Staff effectively extend children's learning during activities. For example, they encourage children to 'juice' their fruits and transfer this into a numbered tube. Children begin to learn about numbers and quantity as they identify how much more they need.
• Children generally behave well and staff take swift action to support them when any conflicts arise. Staff demonstrate and support children to learn how to share and take turns with each other. However, staff do not consistently help older children to develop an awareness of their own actions and why behaviour rules are in place. Consequently, older children have not yet developed the skills needed to manage their own conflicts independently.
• Staff strive to ensure children develop a love of literacy. They excitedly read stories to children and then encourage children to retell the story using props. Older children enjoy creating and displaying their own supermarket logos in the home corner, when engaging in make-believe play with friends. Children show an embedded knowledge of the different sounds that make up familiar words.
• Staff know children very well and all staff have a shared understanding of children's next steps in learning. They skilfully incorporate children's interests and adapt activities they provide, to support the individual abilities of all children. They monitor children's progress well. All staff complete regular observations to gather comprehensive information about children's abilities to inform their assessments and future learning goals. As a result, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress in their learning.
• Staff work closely with parents to identify what experiences children bring with them to the pre-school. For example, families of a Chinese heritage come and teach children different arts and crafts. However, leaders have not yet developed effective methods to find out what children already know and can do before starting, to give staff a clear understanding of their current stages of development.
• Relationships between families and staff are strong. Parents speak highly of the staff and highlight the personal and nurturing interactions they have with children. Parents state that their children are happy and feel safe and secure during their time at the pre-school. They comment on the significant progress children make in their communication and language development, and explain that their child's confidence has come on 'leaps and bounds' since attending.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support older children to develop an awareness of their own behaviour and how their actions can impact on others
• seek more detailed information from parents about children's learning to gain an effective understanding of what they already know and can do before starting.