Happy Valley Pre School Brighton

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settle well at this pre-school. Staff warmly greet children on arrival, who are keen to begin their day. Generally, staff plan and deliver a broad and balanced curriculum. They thoughtfully plan an array of activities and play experiences that support children's individual learning, as well as incorporating their particular interests. As such, children quickly engage in activities on offer. This supports children's motivation as they play and learn.

The manager, alongside her supportive staff team, has worked hard to make the necessary improvements since the last inspection. In addition, she has ensured that previous improvements made have been sustained. All staff now have access to targeted training and support to assist them to continually improve their personal effectiveness. They receive the coaching and mentoring necessary to enable them to be effective in their own roles and meet their responsibilities. As such, all staff have worked tirelessly to implement an effective curriculum, in turn, raising the quality of education and interactions children receive.

Staff understand the importance of supporting children, including those who at times struggle to understand their own emotions, to manage and understand their own feelings. Staff are positive role models to children, and they take time to consistently support those who need it. Consequently, this influences children's positive behaviour.

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

• Generally, staff plan and provide purposeful and appropriately challenging learning experiences for children. The new, well-balanced curriculum on offer provides children opportunities to practise and develop their skills in all seven areas of learning. Staff know the children well and plan for children's individual next steps. They know what skills children have learned, and what they want to teach them next. However, on occasion quieter children and those who need more help are not successfully supported to be fully engaged in the learning experiences on offer. This does not consistently enable these children to make all of the progress they are capable of.
• Interactions children receive have significantly improved. This has been positively enhanced by staff accessing targeted training, which has been cascaded throughout the whole staff team. Staff narrate children's play appropriately. For younger children, and those who are receiving additional support with their speech development, staff use simple words alongside repetition and gesture. Older children have opportunities to take part in back- and-forth conversations, sharing their own thoughts and ideas. Staff introduce new words, such as 'twisting', and explain their meaning. This helps children make connections in their learning as well as broadening their vocabulary. However, although staff identify and follow children's curiosities, at times they do not recognise when to build further on these opportunities and maximise children's learning. This does not fully support children to extend their knowledge, skills and understanding even further.
• Staff promote children's good behaviour consistently. They model and support interactions between children to help them develop early friendships. This supports children's social and emotional development well. Staff ensure children are kept safe and demonstrate a secure understanding of risk assessment. However, they do not always consider how they teach older children about risks or why they ask them to do things. This does not consistently promote children's growing understanding of how to keep themselves safe.
• The provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is good. The special educational needs coordinator has received additional support in her role and now has dedicated time to ensure her responsibilities can be completed. Children have personalised support plans in place. These incorporate specific strategies from other professionals, where appropriate. These ensure children's well-being and next steps in learning are consistently and appropriately considered. Staff understand the importance of working in close partnership with parents, as well as other professionals. This ensures all children have their needs consistently met and make good progress alongside their friends.
• Children's physical development is well considered. The youngest children have opportunities to safely practise their early steps. Older children enjoy ample opportunities to run, balance and manoeuvre their whole bodies. In addition, children delight in activities such as mark making and exploring play dough. These experiences support children to develop their core muscle skills and increase their small-muscle dexterity, in preparation for early writing.
• Staff recognise the importance of partnership with parents and carers. They provide various methods of communication to keep parents regularly updated. Parents are complimentary about the care and education their children receive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the curriculum so it consistently meets the needs of all children and learning is equally as purposeful for all, particularly those that are quieter and less confident
• support all staff to consistently recognise opportunities that arise from children's interests and to extend children's thinking skills further to enhance their learning
• support staff to teach older children about how to keep themselves safe and develop their understanding of risk.