Happy Hall Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Friendly, happy staff eagerly welcome children and their parents to this warm and friendly environment. Children separate well from their parents. They are happy to see their friends, and they settle straight into play. An effective key-worker system ensures that staff build strong, nurturing relationships that support children's emotional security and well-being effectively. Staff plan interesting and exciting activities for children to enjoy. They adapt these to meet children's individual learning needs, thereby, enabling children to make continued progress in their learning. Children enjoy sharing what they know with others. For example, they explain that their hearts are beating faster because they have been dancing.

Staff provide children with daily opportunities to learn outdoors. Children delight in going on minibeast hunts and using magnifiers to identify and observe what they find. They eagerly share and talk about the insects they find with their friends. All children relish this time outside to extend their learning and develop their social skills as they play alongside their friends.

Staff encourage children to have a go and do things for themselves. They praise children's efforts and celebrate their successes. This promotes children's self-confidence and boosts their self-esteem. Staff have clear expectations for children's behaviour and are good role models. They encourage children to use their 'listening ears' and support them to take turns as they play. As a result, children behave well.

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

• Staff have worked hard to make improvements to the setting. They have reviewed the way they plan and deliver the curriculum to meet children's individual learning needs and improve learning outcomes. Staff have received training and support to further develop their practice and ensure a more consistent approach to teaching.
• Staff have considered how they can improve the experiences for children at the setting. Since the last inspection, room dividers provide smaller rooms that are tailored to the children who use them. The newly created 'cosy corners' offer a comfortable, quiet area for group times and for children to enjoy a story. These measures have helped staff to meet children's needs more effectively.
• Staff work well to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They understand the specific, and sometimes complex, needs of children with SEND. Staff work closely with parents and other agencies to identify next steps of learning so that children get the support they need. This helps to ensure that children with SEND continue to make progress in their learning alongside their peers.
• The manager spends the additional funding that some children receive to further support their development and close gaps in their learning. For example, she purchased resources to support children's emotional well-being and security and purchased interactive toys to support communication and language for children whose first language is not English.
• Staff model language well. They use ambitious language, such as 'photosynthesis' and 'cocoon', when they interact with children during activities. This helps to broaden children's vocabulary. Staff use questions that promote thinking and extend children's speaking skills. For example, they ask them to recall events from familiar stories. Consequently, children learn to express their thinking and become increasingly confident communicators.
• Staff help children to develop their skills in mathematics. For example, they count out the number of taps on the bucket when building sandcastles with babies and toddlers. Two- and three-year-old children show the number of fruits the caterpillar has eaten using their fingers. Older children match numerals and quantities up to 10 and use marks to represent numbers.
• Staff teach children to manage their self-care needs independently. They teach children about hygiene practices, such as washing their hands after using the toilet. Children know about germs and the effect they may have on their health. However, staff do not always ensure that messages around hygiene are consistent. For example, sometimes, staff and children do not wash their hands after wiping noses.
• Staff have clear intent for planned group activities. However, children sometimes have to wait to start their learning while staff gather the resources they need. Furthermore, staff do not always support children who find it tricky to stay focused during group activities. For example, when younger children become restless during story time, they begin to play with musical instruments. This makes it difficult for those still listening to the story and limits the impact on their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to ensure that children are given consistently clear messages around hygiene practices so that they build on what they already know and continue to develop healthy habits
• review the management of group activities to ensure that all children continue to benefit from the maximum opportunities to extend their learning.