Gorsewood Pre-School Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy when arriving at the setting and separate from their parents well. They are greeted by friendly and warm staff and access a wide range of differentiated resources. Children are directed to their favourite activities, such as dough, and invited to sit and engage while the other children arrive. In the main, children are exposed to a language rich environment and staff use questioning, explaining and labelling as part of day-to-day practice. Children begin to recognise colours as part of interactions with adults. Staff have high expectations of what children can achieve. As a result, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are making good progress.

Children behave well. They understand the setting's rules and follow the instructions given by staff. Children benefit from clear and consistent reminders. This helps children to understand what is expected of them as they learn to share, take turns and develop their attention skills.

Most children continued to attend during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff are aware that children have had limited experiences, such as acquiring language and mixing with others. Children take part in small group sessions using visuals and signing. These help children to extend their language skills further.

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

• Staff get down to the children's level and play alongside them while playing with dough. Overall, staff support children well to develop vocabulary; they model single words, such as pinch, squeeze and name colours. However, some staff do not always pronounce words correctly, which means children are not fully supported in developing their wider vocabulary.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works effectively with children with SEND. They identify the children who need support at the earliest opportunity. The SENCo liaises with parents and professionals to ensure each child's needs are met. This helps all children make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff manage children's behaviour well. They skilfully help children to learn to manage their feelings and emotions. Where children need gentle reminders about behaviour, staff are on hand to provide support and talk to them about turn taking and sharing.
• Staff build good relationships with parents right from the start. They share information about the children's care needs, interests, and stage of development. Parents speak highly of the setting and the support they receive. Parents comment on how the staff are 'always available' if they need advice.
• In the main, staff promote children's independence well. For example, encouraging taking themselves to the bathroom. However, staff do not always seize opportunities for children to carry out tasks for themselves, such as pouring milk and cutting fruit.
• Leaders and staff have identified that children need opportunities to develop their large physical skills. They have facilitated partnerships with the host school, that allows them access to greater outdoor provision. However, this is not consistent, and some children do not access this provision regularly. As a result, children do not always have opportunities to practise their physical skills and take risks.
• Staff encourage children to lead a healthy lifestyle. They offer healthy choices, such as fruit, water and milk. They are good role models and support children to try different fruit.
• The manager has taken on board recommendations from the previous inspections; focusing on well-being and workload. However, more can be done by the manager to ensure there is a sharp focus on monitoring of performance, for example through peer observations and feedback on how staff can improve their teaching and practice.
• Communication is a focus for the setting. Staff attend specific training on understanding children's language development, which, overall, is implemented well. This helps staff to use specific strategies, such as observing, waiting and listening, to allow children time to respond. As a result, children make good progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop systems further for supervision and peer observations to ensure they are more focused on improving staff performance and staff receive feedback to improve their practice and support delivering the curriculum more effectively
• provide daily opportunities for all children to take risks in their play and practise and refine their large motor skills.