Kids2Day Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to attend this nurturing pre-school. They settle quickly and confidently move around the environment, engaging in play with their friends. For example, they enjoy caring and bathing the dolls together. Staff take the time to get to know children before they start, which creates a smooth settling-in period. Children form strong bonds with the staff, who are kind and caring in their approach. For instance, staff provide children with comfort, cuddles and reassurance as needed. This supports children's well-being.

Staff plan engaging small group activities that support children's communication and language development. For example, through discussion children enjoy learning about sea life creatures and explore the different toy animals. Furthermore, staff read stories to children that link to their activities to extend and enhance their learning. They teach children other ways to communicate, such as using pictures and Makaton sign language. This helps all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to become strong communicators.

Staff have high expectations of children. They encourage them to be independent, such as when hand washing before meals and putting wet weather suits on to go outside. Staff are positive role models. For instance, when children struggle to regulate their behaviour, they are quick to intervene and support them. Staff explain the rules and behavioural expectations clearly. For example, they remind children about using their 'walking feet' indoors and children remind their friends. This supports children to behave well.

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

• Staff identify when children have gaps in their development or SEND. They work in partnership with parents and other professionals to make timely referrals and put plans in place. Staff use additional funding that children are entitled to appropriately. For instance, they have purchased resources to support children's communication and language development. This helps children with SEND receive the support they need at the earliest opportunity.
• Staff have a clear curriculum in place and plan an overall broad range of exciting activities that generally engage children well and follow children's interests. For example, children enjoy exploring outside for worms and staff use this as an opportunity to extend children's language and introduce new words, such as 'habitat'. However, although staff have a good overview of the children, they do not always have a clear understanding of what it is that they want the children to learn. This means that, sometimes, support for children is not consistently targeted at their specific next steps in learning, to fully support their progress.
• Staff support children's physical development well. They ensure children have a variety of opportunities to develop physically. For instance, children enjoy having access to the soft play at the start of their day. They have fun climbing up the different levels and laugh as they come down the slide. Furthermore, children enjoy taking part in regular music and movement activities.
• Staff help children develop an understanding of new concepts through good-quality interactions. For example, they help children learn when containers are 'full' and 'empty' when playing with sand. Children regularly practise their counting skills, with the encouragement and support of staff. For instance, children use tape measures to measure each other, and staff support them to count. This supports children's mathematical development.
• Staff support children to learn about how to keep themselves healthy. For example, children learn about oral health and brush their teeth at pre-school. Staff teach children about healthy eating. For instance, at snack time, staff encourage children to eat their healthy snack and talk about healthy eating. This supports children's well-being.
• The provider ensures all staff have regular supervisions and supports their professional development well. However, at times, the provider is not fully aware of the stresses of workload on the staff. For example, staff do not always have enough time to complete all of the tasks required of them at the pre-school and resort to doing so outside of working hours. This does not fully promote staff's well-being and morale
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Staff seek information from parents about languages spoken at home and their cultural heritage. They provide parents with regular updates about their children's learning and development and how they can extend their learning at home. For instance, they have a selection of books in a lending library that children can take home. This supports children's ongoing learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen planning so that staff have a consistent understanding of what they want children to learn from activities and how to build on individual children's next steps
• strengthen the arrangements in place to support staff workload and reduce pressure to enhance staff well-being.