Jeffrey Emmanuel Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this welcoming playgroup. They form secure relationships with staff, who are kind and caring. This supports their emotional well-being and helps them to feel safe. Children are confident to explore their surroundings and choose from the resources and activities. For example, children are self-assured as they take on the roles of assistants or customers in the pretend shop. They select the resources that they wish to use and chat happily to their peers. Children display positive attitudes to their learning and confidently develop their own interests and fascinations. For instance, they were excited to observe how leaves and paper blow around their garden on a windy day. They tested how different items were affected by the wind and were keen to create paper kites to explore this further.

Staff have high expectations for children's learning and behaviour. They support them to be independent and confident about what they can do. Children learn good hygiene routines and begin to manage their own personal care. They develop positive relationships with their peers and demonstrate good social skills, such as sharing the toys. Children's uniqueness is valued. Staff ensure that they celebrate the events and festivals that are important to children and their families. This helps children to understand and respect their similarities and differences.

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

• Leaders and staff provide a challenging curriculum and are clear about what they want children to learn. They monitor children's development well and share information about their progress with parents. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive very good support from staff. Staff work in partnership with parents and other professionals to create targeted plans. This helps all children make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff support children's language development very well and are aware that some children need more help with speaking and listening. They describe how they implement the activities and strategies they have learned from training to encourage children's communication skills. For instance, they use simple sign language and visual cues to help children understand routines and express their needs. Children, including children who have SEND and children who speak English as an additional language, become confident communicators.
• Children demonstrate a keen interest in books and are developing their literacy skills well. For instance, as children create caterpillars from play dough, they recall words and events from a story about a hungry caterpillar. Children enjoy practising their early writing skills and incorporate writing into their play, such as by creating lists and labels for their pretend shop.
• Overall, children show high levels of engagement. For instance, they concentrate as they explore sensory activities such as play dough and dried oats. However, on occasion, staff are slow to adjust activities and daily routines to ensure that all children remain interested and engaged. For instance, the discussions at circle times are too long and complicated for some children, who become bored and leave the activity. Therefore, they miss out on the learning opportunities.
• Children learn about the importance of developing healthy lifestyles. They are physically active and develop balance, coordination and body control from daily exercise and outdoor play. Staff work in partnership with parents to help children adopt healthy eating habits, such as enjoying a wide range of fruit and vegetables.
• Staff manage children's behaviour well. They teach children how to follow positive rules at the playgroup, such as using their 'kind hands' with each other. Children are taught how to manage risks and begin to keep themselves safe. For example, staff show children how to position and use the jumping hurdles in a safe way.
• Communication with parents is a strength. Leaders offer a wide range of information to parents about the curriculum and special events. Parents look forward to reading the regular newsletters and seeing the photographs and comments about their children's learning in their individual folders. This helps parents to have a good understanding of their children's progress and how they can help to extend their learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to adapt and reshape planned activities and daily routines to fully maximise children's engagement and enjoyment in their learning.