Honeypot Room

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a relaxed and calm play environment, where children feel happy and safe. They are supported by staff to feel emotionally secure. When children are upset, staff sit with them and offer reassuring hugs. They answer children's questions when they are unsure of an unfamiliar adult in the environment. This puts children's concerns at ease. Staff are good role models for children. They offer them lots of praise and encouragement, as a result children's behaviour is good.

Children are active learners, and they enjoy exploring their environment freely. They confidently access a range of activities that staff have planned around their current interests. Children enjoy long periods of play with gentle interactions from staff to support and consolidate their learning. For example, children choose to paint butterfly pictures. They study the real-life caterpillars in front of them, recalling the life cycle of a butterfly. Children thoroughly enjoy extending their learning outdoors. They search high and low, looking for bugs and insects. Staff include children's interests and preferences in shaping the curriculum.

All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), thoroughly enjoy music time. They copy the actions in the songs, touching their heads and toes. They roar like lions and hiss like snakes as they pretend to be an explorer in the jungle. Music time is a joyous occasion for all.

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

• In the main, children are provided with a broad curriculum that covers all areas of learning. However, the curriculum for mathematics has not been designed to challenge older and most-able children. For example, three-year-old children play with shape sorter toys and simple inset puzzles that are provided for them. Therefore, children do not develop a deep knowledge and understanding of a range of mathematical concepts that are appropriate to their age and stage of development.
• Staff place a strong focus on children's communication and language development. Children benefit from engaging in back-and-forth conversations with staff, answering open-ended questions about their trips to the local park and shops. The manager has carefully considered how to use additional funding to support children's communication and language development.
• Staff take the time to get to know children and their families when they start at the setting. They gather useful information from parents to help them get to know their children, including what they like, know and can do. Staff create opportunities for children to revisit their personal experiences. For example, they have recently transformed the role-play area into a doctors' surgery. This helps children to make sense of the world around them.
• Overall, children who speak English as an additional language are supported well. They play happily alongside their friends. However, identified strategies to support their development of spoken English are limited and not applied consistently. Furthermore, targets are not reviewed and updated in a timely manner. This means that children who speak English as additional language do not always receive high levels of support.
• Children are independent and like to do things for themselves. They blow their own noses and wash their hands independently. They find their own pegs and put on their own coats. Staff praise their efforts and achievements. Children are confident to complete tasks on their own.
• Children with SEND are well supported. Staff make timely referrals to external agencies and work with other professionals to provide targeted support. As a result, children with SEND make good progress from their starting points.
• The management team is committed to providing quality care and support for children and their families. They have a shared vision for the future of the setting, identifying improvements they would like to make to enhance experiences for children. They monitor staff's practice and identify training to support their continual professional development. As a result, the quality of teaching is consistent across the setting.
• Parent partnership is strong. Parents are happy and highly appreciative of the care and support their children receive. They comment on the good progress their children have made with their communication and language skills. Parents value the feedback given at the end of each session, both verbally and on the online platform, which is used to share information.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• create a more challenging and ambitious mathematics curriculum to deepen children's knowledge and understanding of a range of mathematical concepts that are appropriate to their age and stage of development
• review the strategies in place to support children who speak English as an additional language, ensuring that they are applied consistently and reviewed in a timely manner to enable them to make the best possible progress with their spoken English.