Kiddiwinks Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Warm and friendly staff welcome the children into this nurturing pre-school. The children enter with confidence and immediately begin to play in the well-prepared environment. They seek out their friends and quickly become engaged in a variety of planned activities. Staff prioritise building strong relationships with the children and their families. Children feel safe and secure in their care.

The staff have clear intentions for children's learning. They focus on preparing the children for their next stage in life. Children show they can do things for themselves. They choose what they want from the snack bar. The children count out their apple slices and cheese cubes. They pour their drinks and place their empty bowls in the sink. The children learn about making healthy choices and how to keep their bodies healthy. They understand the importance of washing their hands and brushing their teeth.

The children spend a large amount of time outdoors where they learn about nature and participate in physical play. For example, they participate in a morning wake-up song. Children follow the staff's instructions as they do stretching exercises and move their bodies. The children notice the change in their heart rate. They discuss how exercise is good for them and how it makes them strong and happy. Children develop a positive attitude towards managing their health and well-being.

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

• The manager and her team have created a curriculum that uses a blend of child-led play and adult-led activities. They plan activities based on the children's interests and their next stages of learning. Staff use themes such as seasons or events to introduce new learning. They interact with the children during their play to extend their knowledge further. Children make clear progress from their starting points across all seven areas of learning. For example, they harvest some potatoes they have grown. Children notice the white roots in the soil. Staff discuss how the roots suck up the water and food from the compost, which helps the potatoes to grow.
• Children behave well. They happily share resources and form close friendships. Staff encourage all children to be respectful and kind to each other. They reinforce the rules and boundaries through gentle reminders, such as to use 'kind hands' and not to run indoors. Staff support the children to manage their feelings and behaviours. They talk to the children about how they might be feeling and how their actions might affect others.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff provide parents with detailed feedback about their child's learning and development. They offer a wide range of support and advice to help with issues such as potty training, speech delay and fussy eating. Parents receive ideas for supporting children's learning at home and have regular meetings with their child's key person. Parents say that their children enjoy attending the pre-school.
• The manager uses funding effectively to support vulnerable children, such as ensuring that children have the uniform and resources they need for starting school. Additionally, she also enables staff to attend specialist training to develop their knowledge and understanding further to support the children in their care.
• Staff provide the children with plenty of opportunities to strengthen their small-muscle skills in preparation for writing. The children explore paintbrushes and water. They make marks on the floor, using chalk, and access activity sheets at the creative table. However, children do not have access to a wide range of craft materials, which limits opportunities for them to be creative and use their imagination.
• The children learn about mathematical language and concepts during their play. For example, at the play dough table, the children test out their theories and ideas. They place their play dough on one end of the scales and the wooden rolling pin on the other to see which is heaviest. The children measure the width of their play dough with a ruler. They count the number of centimetres to determine whose is the biggest.
• The staff support children's communication and language skills. They read stories and sing nursery rhymes with familiar phrases. The staff encourage the children to use their words and to share their ideas during group circle time. However, staff do not always extend children's vocabulary further or ensure that they repeat words back to children correctly. They do not consistently help children to become even more confident in their communication skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children with a wide range of creative activities to further enhance their imagination
• help children to hear the correct pronunciation of words and extend their vocabulary further to enhance their language skills.