George Fentham Before & After School Club

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at the provision. They spend time in the morning on site at the school nursery. School staff supervise children across the playground to the provision, where they are warmly greeted by staff. Children smile and are eager to hang up their coats, wash their hands, and quickly prepare themselves to eat their lunch. Children are very familiar with the routine. Staff are kind and caring. They support children's emotional well-being, and they are attentive to the needs of individual children. This helps children to feel secure and safe in the environment.

Children's care and learning are a priority. Staff go above and beyond to make the provision accessible to the local community. Staff hold high expectations for children to behave well. They teach children simple rules that keep them safe and help them to understand right and wrong. As a result, children begin to self-regulate their own behaviour. They are confident and motivated to learn.

The manager and deputy consider how their curriculum aligns with that of other provision that children attend so as to consolidate children's learning. However, they do not always plan precisely enough to identify the specific skills that individual children need to learn across the range of activities.

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

• Leadership and management are strong. The provision has close links with the committee and keeps it up to date about the childcare. The committee members are supportive. They work with the staff team to continue to make improvements to the provision. Due to COVID restrictions, the setting closed for a prolonged period. The impact of this closure resulted in a financial loss to the provision. As a result, they have not had the resources to make the full range of improvements to the outside space. However, following the previous inspection, the provision reviewed children's learning in the outdoor play space. They added artificial turf to create an area where children can enjoy ball games and other activities. They took steps to improve the security of the area. However, they recognise that more needs to be done to fully support children who enjoy learning in the outdoor environment.
• The deputy manager coordinates children's assessments with the staff team. They know their children well and identify what each child needs to learn next. However, in practice, activities do not always focus precisely enough on the specific skill that they want each child to learn. This means that children do not always make the most rapid progress.
• Staff are quick to respond as they identify emerging themes for children's learning. They talk to the children about road safety as they look at the different colours of the play traffic lights. Children learn that 'green is for go' and 'red for stop'. They follow simple rules to keep themselves safe, as they choose their own helmet to protect their heads when they ride wheeled toys.
• Children practise their physical skills outdoors. They excitedly move their bodies to the music in a variety of ways as they dance to songs. Children's fine motor skills are good; they correctly hold pencils to colour and draw precisely. Children learn about wildlife in the local environment; they use their imagination to create their own hedgehog on paper, adding the nose and eyes to their picture.
• Children make nice friendships with their peers. They play cooperatively together. Children listen to different views and are developing respect for others. Trips to the local library and church help children to learn about the community in which they live. Staff teach children about our diverse society through a range of different festivals and celebrations throughout the year.
• The provision has a sharp focus on children's speech and language. Staff talk to the children continually to build their vocabulary. Story times engage children very well. Skilled staff, read and explore the rhyming words that repeat throughout the story. Children listen intently. They giggle and laugh out loud as they practise the words and repeat their favourite phrases, such as 'wonky donkey'. Staff check children's recall of the story, posing questions about what has happened.
• Parents report that they are happy with the care and education their children receive at the provision. They receive regular updates and information about what their children do during the sessions. This helps them to support children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to develop the outside play space to support the delivery of the full curriculum outdoors
• further consider how the curriculum can focus more precisely on the skills that children need to acquire to make rapid progress.