Hazeldene Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive in good spirits and are happy to separate from their parents. They respond positively to staff's warm morning welcome at this inclusive pre-school. Children eagerly share their home news with staff who show they are interested in what children have to say. Children are familiar with arrival routines. They know they must self-register before putting their belongings away.

Leaders ensure that children benefit from a good range of activities that generally promote their good development across the areas of learning. For example, children have ample opportunities to build their imaginary play. They spend time engrossed in arts and crafts and small-world play. Staff support children well as they play with them. They challenge children to identify and understand the concepts of size and quantity. Children learn to describe, count and comment about objects and their ideas during construction, creative and sensory opportunities.

Staff get to know individual children well. Children freely approach staff for hugs. Staff have high expectations for children's independence and early literacy skills. They encourage children to choose activities for themselves as they support and challenge children. Children develop a keen interest in books. They hand books to staff and comfortably sit on their laps to listen as staff read to them.

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

• Leaders and staff ensure that all children benefit from meaningful opportunities to develop their good speaking and communication skills. Staff ensure that children who speak English as an additional language feel confident to use their home languages together with English during their interactions with them. Staff skilfully use prompts, visuals and other aids to help children build their good vocabulary.
• Staff encourage children's curiosity and positive attitudes towards learning. They ensure that the learning environment is prepared well with a good range of activities that match children's interests. Children explore the environment and remain busy in their play. For example, children build their hand muscles as they determinedly scoop out pumpkins with spoons and tweezers.
• Children develop their social skills as staff encourage their cooperative play. Staff role model expected behaviours and swiftly intervene when children have minor disputes. However, they do not offer children explanations for why some behaviour is undesirable. Consequently, children do not develop the level of understanding of the behaviour rules that they are capable of.
• Staff promote children's emerging self-help skills effectively. Children learn to put on their own coats before going out to play. At snack time, they confidently serve their own portions of fruit. Children learn to clear away their own plates after eating. They learn to manage their own toileting and handwashing routines.
• Staff encourage children to try a variety of healthy snacks to broaden their appetites. They help children understand the importance of oral health during play activities linked to toothbrushing. Nevertheless, staff do not help children understand the differences between healthy and unhealthy drinks. This does not support individual children's developing awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy diet.
• Outdoors, staff promote children's active play and physical development well. Children enjoy playing in the open air. They confidently manoeuvre a variety of ride-on toys, such as scooters and pedal cars. They show good coordination as they steer and stop.
• Staff embed consistent routines for children. They help children to manage the transitions in the routine well, such as from free play to group times. Staff use these times to teach children initial sounds in their names and words. Children learn to say the days of the week and describe the weather. However, staff's organisation of circle-time activities needs revisiting. The duration and organisation of these times does not consistently meet the learning needs of individual children's developing attention spans.
• Leaders and staff are quick to identify children who are making less than expected progress. They work with parents so children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive effective interventions and additional support to help them reach their targets. Therefore, all children make good progress.
• Parents speak highly of leaders and the staff team. They receive routine updates regarding their children's progress and next steps. Parents say staff share suggestions of activities they can do at home to support their children's learning.
• Staff report that they are happy in their work. They enjoy working at the setting and feel there is a friendly team atmosphere. This contributes to the high team morale and good level of care children receive.
• Leaders ensure that they support, monitor and coach staff to understand their roles and responsibilities. They ensure that staff receive regular supervision sessions and appraisals. This helps identify their areas of strength and where they need to develop their practice. This has helped the quality of support for children's communication and language.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help children gain a clearer understanding of why some behaviour is undesirable so they show they know why behaviour rules are in place
• provide clearer, consistent messages regarding healthy eating for children so they build their awareness of the importance of a healthy diet
• revisit arrangements for circle-time routines so they meet the learning needs of individual children more consistently.