Kids Adventures Prestwich - Forest School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a natural environment for children to explore and develop confidence in leading their own play. The atmosphere in the setting buzzes with children's excitement. Staff build trusting relationships with children. They are highly attuned to children's individual needs. For example, staff offer children cuddles for reassurance. This helps children to feel emotionally secure. Staff are positive role models and encourage kindness and respect and demonstrate good manners. Children listen to staff and follow their instructions. For example, they help to tidy up their resources. Children work together to carry the large tubes. They discuss how they can manage this task effectively. Children have respectful attitudes towards their surroundings. Staff offer positive praise to children to recognise their achievements. This immediately boosts children's self-esteem. Children respond with a smile and a thumbs up. They develop a positive attitude towards their learning.

Staff provide an ambitious curriculum, which supports children's emotional needs. They support children to understand different feelings and emotions through a story about a monster. Children make connections with the emotions of the different monster characters. For example, they stomp their feet and cross their arms for 'angry' or give others a cuddle for 'love'. Children talk about what makes them feel happy. Staff build on this and explain how different situations may make them feel, such as when they go to school. Children engage in back-and-forth conversations about their feelings. They are confident communicators and make good progress in their language development.

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

• Staff have boundaries in place to allow children to manage their own safety. They undertake thorough risk assessments with children to minimise any hazards. For example, children recognise that they need to wear safety gloves when using palm drills. They remind their friends of waiting outside of the 'boundary line' when they are using tools. Children demonstrate a clear awareness of how to keep themselves safe.
• Staff support children to develop their independence. For example, children learn how to dress themselves and put on their own waterproof suits so they can embrace all learning experiences outdoors. In addition, children wash their own hands and serve their own meals. Children develop a range of important skills that they will need for the future.
• Children display a love for books. Staff use stories to help embed children's early literacy skills. Children seek out their key person regularly to sit and read stories together. Staff support children to take care of books by holding them and turning the pages carefully. These experiences promote children's early literacy skills.
• The daily routine is generally planned well. Staff support children to transition through daily activities with gentle interactions. However, some parts of the routine are not organised effectively to sustain children's attention. For example, during some transitions to mealtimes, children wait for long periods. This causes disruption to children's routine, and they become disengaged from their learning.
• Staff are passionate about supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They identify any emerging needs quickly and put interventions into place to support children. Staff work closely with parents and the local authority to develop individual support plans. Children with SEND make good progress in their learning.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are superb. Staff share 'golden moments' with parents to recognise children's achievements. Parents say the communication is excellent and they are regularly kept up to date with their children's development. Furthermore, staff support children's learning at home. They provide a lending library and share core books with parents to read at home. This helps to promote a consistent approach to children's care and learning.
• Staff's well-being is given high priority, and morale across the setting is high. Leaders provide regular feedback, coaching and training to support staff's professional development. Staff are completing forest school training, which has further strengthened their understanding of how to minimise risks in the outdoor area. This helps to keep children safe.
• The provider previously notified Ofsted about a significant event. This means that the provider has met their legal responsibility to notify Ofsted as set out in the early years foundation stage. Leaders discussed this event during the inspection and have reviewed staff training, policies and risk assessments around supervising children and accidents. They have implemented changes to ensure that children are supervised effectively at all times. The provider has taken swift action to address the breach of requirements.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider the organisation of transitions to minimise children's waiting times and better support their engagement.