Grove Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are welcoming and friendly when children arrive at the pre-school. Children feel safe and happy to part from their parents, eager to talk to staff and see what exciting activities are available. The planning of the environment is good and enables children to explore and make choices. For example, children choose a mathematical activity, using toy animals. Staff extend this by asking children if they can identify groups of items without counting them. Children relish the challenge and are proud when they achieve. Children in the garden use resources to create a 'treasure hunt' and run around using chalks to create 'X marks the spot' and suggest what the treasure could be.

Staff get to know each child as an individual as soon as they start. This enables them to focus their ambitious, inclusive curriculum successfully, to ensure that it motivates children's learning and focuses on their individual learning needs. As children eagerly extend their imagination, using play dough, staff engage them well in dialogue, listening and responding effectively to their ideas. They help children to persevere to succeed in what they want to achieve. For example, when a child ambitiously wants use scissors to cut out a star shape, staff acknowledge that this is difficult but support them well. This successfully develops children's physical skills and their positive attitudes to learning.

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

• The manager plans well to provide children with experiences they may not otherwise engage in. Her enthusiastic team encourages children to get involved and develop their skills. For example, staff help children to link sounds and letters, hear rhyming words, count, follow instructions and take turns. They provide good support to help children use trial and error to learn, such as looking at the picture of a completed puzzle and asking, 'Where does this piece go?' or What do you think?'
• Staff successfully implement the curriculum for communication and language. For example, they use poems and introduce new words, such as 'nibble' and 'gulp'. They model language, recasting children's mispronounced words. Children are confident communicators. They explain what they are doing and how. Staff engage children well in stories, even at two-years-old. Children remain fascinated, asking and answering questions.
• Staff attend well to children's emotional needs. They are calm role models, talking gently and helping children to vocalise any problems, to resolve the issue for themselves. As a result, many children are seen sharing and offering resources to others. However, children do not always have enough time for active play and sometimes go from one sitting activity to another. Therefore, occasionally, children become restless and do not concentrate fully.
• Staff quickly identify where children may need additional support and implement good strategies to help them. For example, they provide nurture plans for children needing help regulating their emotions. Children receive help to use the calm corner, where they have time out to explore sensory toys. Staff support children well in understanding safety, such as why it is not safe to stand on chairs. The manager maintains high staff ratios and targets funding productively to ensure that staff narrow any gaps in children's development and help them to catch up with their peers.
• Overall, staff work well as a team to provide children with good support and supervision. For example, children create and explore obstacle courses, with staff providing help where needed. However, the curriculum intent for snack time, to extend children's understanding of healthy eating and gain independence, is not always implemented as well as it could be.
• Parents confirm how well staff work in partnership with them. Staff seek and share important information and know the children well. Staff use effective strategies that parents use at home to support children's development. Staff celebrate the backgrounds and languages of the children and help parents to develop good links in the community. This provides a strong, positive sense of belonging for the children.
• The manager spends a lot of time working directly with the staff and children. She seeks feedback from staff and parents to improve practice and identify any training. She recognises staff's strengths and uses these to support others. For example, with her support, a staff member is the designated safeguarding lead. Staff follow procedures effectively to quickly protect children and promote their welfare.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop the planning to provide children with more opportunities to be active and let off steam so that when they need to sit for periods of time during group activities, they are focused and engaged in the learning
• improve the organisation of mealtimes to enable staff to use routines more effectively as a learning opportunity.