Happy Little Hearts

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this inclusive, nurturing pre-school. Staff welcome children warmly with individual greetings. Children settle quickly to explore the exciting environment. They are eager to discover what staff have provided for them to investigate, indoors and outside. Staff deliver the thoughtfully structured curriculum through fun activities, such as when children decide to make a robot from boxes and containers of different shapes. From the beginning to the end of the project, staff listen to children's ideas and help them to succeed.

The experienced and well-qualified staff ensure the curriculum follows children's interests, enabling them to make free choices, use their imaginations and solve problems for themselves. Children are active learners who talk proudly about their own resilience as they persist at tasks. One example of this is when they practise stretching and cutting sticky tape while creating models from recycled materials until they succeed. Staff know when to intervene with guidance. They ask whether children want help or not. Children often say 'no, thank you', as they prefer to 'have a go' themselves.

The pre-school focuses on staff developing strong bonds with children and supporting children to socialise. Staff are strongly committed to helping children achieve the very best start to their learning and development. They are caring, kind and respectful, offering a wealth of praise and encouragement. Support for children to move between rooms and on to school is extensive. Children of all ages feel secure as they know what is expected of them. They learn to regulate their emotions using simple breathing techniques in the 'calm corners' provided in each play room. Children behave extremely well and demonstrate good manners.

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

• Leaders are passionately aspirational for the pre-school. They share a clear vision and reflect on ways to implement their ambitions. One example of this is how they have created an inspiring outdoor environment where children love to learn. Extensive coaching, mentoring and training programmes help secure a consistently high quality of teaching and care.
• Staff support children to practise independence in preparation for future learning. For example, staff help children remember sand is added to make concrete. When children want to mix 'concrete' to stick bricks together in the construction area, staff encourage them to collect rainwater and carry it carefully down the hill to add to the hole they have dug. Children impressively work with their friends and concentrate for significant periods. They glow with pride at completing the activity for themselves.
• Staff target any identified gaps in children's development and support their transitions into school extensively. Strong partnerships with other professionals help children receive support promptly. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, make exceptional progress from their starting points in learning.
• Children's communication and language development is top priority. Staff expertly use questioning. They give children plenty of time to think and respond with their own unique ideas. Staff constantly introduce and reinforce new words to develop children's wide vocabulary. Children spontaneously and accurately use mathematical language, naming hexagons and cubes as they play. Staff encourage children to recall experiences, such as the recent visit from police officers, in conversations. Children talk excitedly about the jobs they want to do when they grow up.
• Children demonstrate a great love for books. Staff animatedly read familiar stories that stimulate children's imaginations and creative thinking. Young children show excellent knowledge of refrains and impressive vocabulary as they repeat descriptive words, such as 'prickly'.
• Outdoor learning is highly effective. Children practise their excellent physical development skills daily, including balancing, running, jumping and throwing. Staff support children to learn to take safe risks as they climb high on large wooden equipment. Children delight in rolling full-size wheels down a slope and retrieving them to have another go.
• Staff ensure children engage meaningfully with the community. For example, children delight in meeting people who live in residential homes nearby. They share their favourite books and songs with an older generation, which helps to build their confidence and social skills.
• Staff nurture close parent partnerships. Parents receive frequent communication about children's experiences and achievements and ways to continue learning at home. This includes a new rhyme every week. Staff share weekly themes, such as mathematical shapes, so parents can talk with their children about activities. Parents cook with children at the pre-school to promote healthy eating choices.
• Staff teach young children to grow, harvest, cook and taste herbs and vegetables in the garden. They use knowledge gained from forest school training to provide adventures and moments of awe and wonder for children of all ages. For example, older children help to make dens where they sit to tell stories. They create environments, such as bug hotels, which will benefit creatures living in the woodland. Children help to assess the risk of pathways through the woodland for their play.