Free Spirits Education

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children form strong attachments to adults in this highly nurturing setting. Staff are attentive to children's needs and model vocabulary around emotions, while giving time for children to think about their feelings. As a result, young children have the confidence and skill to tell adults how they feel before they get too upset. This supports children to feel safe and valued at the setting.

Staff accompany children on daily nature walks, which delve into the heart of the surrounding countryside. Under close supervision, children gleefully play among the bark and bracken, swinging from trees, making friends and building dens. These outdoor experiences foster children's love of nature and provide frequent opportunities for physical exercise and team-building.

Adults provide many opportunities for children to develop a love for art and design. Staff support children to talk in detail about their coloured potions and the spells they have created. Children paint shells with great care and offer these as gifts. Other children show high levels of concentration in activities such as clay modelling. As a result, there is a calm environment in which imagination and creativity are celebrated. In addition, children show they are able to appreciate and praise what others have created while having pride in their own skills.

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

• The committed manager has designed an absorbing curriculum that celebrates spontaneous explorations of the natural world. Outdoor activities are child led and encourage children to read, mark make, sort, measure, weigh and label a variety of natural resources, developing their early literacy and mathematical skills. Young children consistently interact with much older children. For example, they talk about their artistic creations and work together to uncover a strange brick buried in the earth. As a result, children in the early years benefit from the language and problem-solving skills of children twice their age.
• Staff have high expectations for language learning and continually explore new vocabulary with children. For instance, when a child places a pebble in an 'emotion jar' full of coloured water, children notice the liquid spilling over the side. Staff talk about 'displacement' and use this word again later in the day in a different context. When adults read books to the children, they pause to examine new words, such as 'ponder'. They role play what 'pondering' means, giving children visual examples of this new idea. This focus on giving children new language to describe new experiences supports young children to develop an advanced vocabulary from an early age.
• Family engagement is successful due to staff's frequent and supportive communication with parents. Parents have contributed to the redesign of the garden with planters for growing fruits and vegetables. Other families have organised events, such as a hedgehog release and trips to local attractions. The involvement of families at a grassroots level has created a community in which children have developed secure relationships and a sense of belonging. Parents report that their children's confidence, self-esteem, emotional literacy and social skills have developed since attending the setting. Parents praise staff's consistent communication and say that they feel their children are valued as individuals.
• The curriculum offers wonderful learning opportunities in and around the natural environment. For instance, there is a focus on local wildlife, growing produce and environmentalism. Even Easter egg hunts are designed so as to help children explore the size of a variety of birds' eggs. Staff also help children to develop some understanding of personal difference and identity, for instance making available books on different cultures. However, these experiences are not yet fully extended to help children learn in greater detail about wider cultural experiences.
• Staff understand their key children very well and make regular observations of what they know and can do. They share information with parents on a termly basis, covering children's progress across all areas of the early years foundation stage. They also offer suggestions for how families can further support their children's development at home. This sharing of information helps children to practise and improve skills they are less confident in.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen opportunities for children to learn about diversity outside their communities and in the wider world.