Humpty Dumpty Pre-School (Colchester)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at pre-school. They are keen to see their friends and play imaginatively together during the session. For example, children create aeroplanes from construction toys that they 'fly' around the room, pretending to be fighter pilots. Children are confident communicators. They use their good speech and language skills to talk to staff and each other. Older children who are due to start school enjoy practising their mathematical skills. They independently write down simple sums, such as one plus five equals six. They chat between themselves, encouraging each other to add higher numbers together. Children develop a love of books. They ask staff to sit with them in the book area. Children cuddle up to staff to listen to their favourite stories.

Children behave well. They remember to use their 'indoor voices' and 'walking feet'. Children learn good social skills. They wait for their friends to take turns at the snack table before sitting down for their fruit and a drink. Children manipulate play dough to create shapes, such as a cocoon for a caterpillar to sleep in. They proudly share their models with staff. Children explain that the caterpillar will go to sleep and wake up as a butterfly. They constantly receive lots of praise from staff. This helps to raise children's self-esteem and confidence in their own abilities.

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

• The manager and staff team have worked hard to meet the actions set at the last inspection. Children confidently get their own fresh drinking water and enjoy playing outside in the garden. Staff receive regular supervision meetings and are encouraged to complete additional training to help develop and extend their practice further. This helps to raise the quality of education and outcomes for children.
• All children make good progress. Staff observe children and know what they need to learn next. Children are eager to share their thoughts with staff. Endless discussions take place about bugs and insects. Children play imaginatively with small plastic bugs and insects. They use tweezers to try and pick up the bugs from baskets with string woven into a web-like structure. They learn the importance of persevering to solve problems, for example when trying to work out how to hold the tweezers to pick up the bugs from under the web.
• Children enjoy moving and combining resources. Some choose to use baskets to carry small-world characters about, while other children build towers and models using construction bricks. However, at times, role play areas, in particular, do not encourage children to recreate their experiences and home lives in their play.
• Parents are happy with the care and learning opportunities that their children receive. They comment that their children have learned a good range of skills to help them move smoothly and confidently into school. Parents are happy with the regular updates from staff about children's achievements and progress.
• Children enjoy making marks and developing their early writing skills. Staff provide paper and suitable resources on tables, indoors and outdoors, to encourage children to draw or write independently. However, staff overlook additional ways to extend mark making into other areas, such as alongside construction materials or the mud kitchen. Therefore, children do not consistently have a wide range of other opportunities to learn to make marks and write for a purpose.
• Staff have good links with local schools. Children enjoy looking at photo booklets containing pictures of their new schools and the teacher. They excitedly tell each other which schools they will be attending. This prompts lots of conversations as children are eager to share that they are going to the same or different schools. They talk about their uniform colours and that their younger siblings will be staying at the pre-school. This shows children's awareness of the changes to come.
• Staff identify children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to help them make progress in relation to their own starting points. They seek specialist advice and make referrals where necessary. This helps to ensure that children receive good levels of support to close any gaps in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make greater use of opportunities, especially in role play, to encourage children to recreate their experiences and home lives in their play
• build further on children's interest in mark making to enable them to learn to write independently for a purpose and support their early literacy skills.