Happy Hours Pre-School Crawley

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at pre-school. They actively engage in their learning with good support from staff. For instance, children enjoy developing their physical skills as they learn to balance on low beams. Staff provide children with appropriate support to enable them to complete these tasks. This helps children to build on their confidence to manage these challenges independently.

Staff organise group activities well to support children's interest and engagement. They remind children of the rules during activities. This includes talking to children about using their listening ears and watching with their eyes. Children respond positively and show good behaviour as they take part in these activities. This enables children to develop a good attitude to learning.

Staff support children to develop their communication and language skills. For instance as they play outside, staff introduce new words to children to describe the weather. Additionally, staff provide children with opportunities to share their ideas. For instance, when children show an interest in the falling leaves, they enjoy sharing their thoughts with staff. Staff listen and respond appropriately, which helps children to feel valued. This supports children to develop their vocabulary.

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

• Since the last inspection, leaders have made improvements to the pre-school, such as strengthening the key person approach and designing a curriculum that meets children's needs. Leaders have sought support from the local authority which has helped them to securely implement these changes. This has enabled leaders to ensure that they meet the requirements of registration.
• Leaders support staff to plan effectively for children's ongoing learning. They identify children's next steps through observations and get to know children well. This enables staff to decide what they want children to learn next. Planning is easily accessible for all staff, which helps them to provide support for all children, as well as their key children.
• Overall, leaders provide good support for staff to develop their practice. They have regular one-to-one meetings with staff, which helps leaders to identify additional training needs. However, on occasion, leaders do not consistently support staff to redeploy themselves when there are no children taking part in the activity that they are supervising. This does not fully enable staff to know what they are expected to do at these times.
• Leaders ensure that the daily routines are embedded well so that children understand what is expected of them. This helps to promote positive behaviour. For instance, when staff tell children that it is time to tidy up, children enjoy helping staff and readily join in.
• Children benefit from lots of opportunities to develop their mathematical knowledge. Staff identify opportunities to introduce maths during children's daily experiences. For example, they encourage children to count the steps as they climb up the jumping blocks. They also invite children to count how many spoonsful of cereal they add to their bowls. This gives children opportunities to practice counting which helps them to embed this knowledge.
• Leaders support children to learn about their world around them. For instance, they provide opportunities for children to engage with the local community. This includes taking children on visits to the library and inviting visitors to the setting to talk about their occupations. This enables children to develop respect for their wider world.
• Staff organise the learning environment well to support children's development. For instance, as children use the climbing frame, staff support them to identify risks. This helps children to learn to identify hazards for themselves.
• Parents appreciate the care and support that staff provide for their children. Staff keep them informed about their child's progress and share ideas to continue children's learning at home. This helps children to receive consistent support with their development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen support for staff so that they know how to consistently deploy themselves effectively.