Huntington Kinder Class

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy, eager to play and ready to learn in this warm and welcoming pre-school. They willingly join in with the activities that are skilfully planned to reflect their individual learning needs. For instance, staff provide opportunities for children to develop their understanding of numbers and small-muscle skills as they play with dough and buttons in the ice-cream shop. Children explore the natural world. They enthusiastically look for any insects that may be visiting their outside area and enjoy regular digging and planting activities. They eagerly share with their friends what they find as they dig, excitedly saying, 'Wow, look, a beetle!' Children learn about the importance of healthy eating as they enjoy growing their own produce, such as strawberries, in the garden.

Staff show great respect for children, and this helps children to respect each other. They promote taking turns and sharing resources with others at every opportunity and frequently provide children with positive praise. This helps to promote children's good behaviour. Staff are responsive to children, showing an interest in them as individuals. They get down to the children's level to talk to them and encourage discussions, particularly about their feelings. They are quick to identify children who may need extra support to help them develop and progress.

Children are cared for in a safe and secure environment where there is high attention on their health and well-being. When needed, staff work with professionals and promptly follow their advice and guidance to help meet children's individual needs.

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

• The passionate provider and manager, and their dedicated staff team, provide children with a rich and vibrant environment. They have a high commitment to providing high-quality care and education for all and high expectations of staff, engaging with other professionals, such as the local school and other outside agencies.
• Staff accurately use their observations and assessments of children's learning to provide a challenging curriculum, that builds on what children already know and can already do. For example, children enjoy making ice cream from dough after several children expressed an interest in working in an ice-cream van. All children make good progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• The key-person system is very effective and this helps children to quickly build a sense of belonging. Children are extremely happy, settled and secure. They quickly develop warm and trusting relationships with staff.
• Partnership with parents is good. Parents share that they felt valued during the
• COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. For example, they received a thoughtful card from the setting during a time when it was only open to some children due to COVID-19 restrictions, as well as regular communication from their child's key person and guidance on how to encourage learning at home.
• Staff teach children the rules of the pre-school and are positive role models. Children are polite, behave well and play well together. For instance, children play excitedly together in the outdoor mud kitchen. Overall, children remain engaged in their play. However, at times, the organisation of the session is not planned as well. For example, some children become distracted while waiting for their turn in a game. This briefly disrupts their play and learning.
• Staff encourage children to explore different festivals around the calendar year. For instance, children enthusiastically role play in the Chinese restaurant. However, there are less opportunities for children to broaden their understanding of diversity by deepening their learning about people, families and communities beyond their own.
• Staff support good hygiene routines and help children learn how to stop the spread of germs. Children know they must wash their hands regularly, including after using the toilet and before eating. They engage in discussion about why they do this, exclaiming it is, 'To wash the germs away!'
• The manager provides staff with regular supervision meetings to help support their professional development and practice. She works closely alongside the staff, which also helps to identify areas to develop further. Staff are keen to undergo additional training, which shows that they have a positive attitude to providing children with good-quality teaching.
• The manager has received good training in order to fulfil her role as the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator. She is able to support staff to care for children with SEND and has developed individual educational plans and specific teaching strategies, such as picture communication cards, which staff use to aid children's progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the already good teaching to provide children with higher levels of challenge, to ensure that all children are able to stay on task and become deeply involved in their learning
• increase opportunities for children to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others in the local and wider world, in order to broaden their understanding of diversity.