Killamarsh Bears Pre-School c/o Killamarsh Sports Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are supported to have a sense of belonging in the pre-school. Their family photos are displayed for them to see. Furthermore, staff incorporate children's traditions and cultures at home into activities they offer children, such as tasting foods from different countries. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well by staff. Partnership working with other professionals helps staff to identify specific targets that they implement to support children's individual needs. Additional funding that some children receive is used effectively to meet their needs. This includes arranging for children to learn about the life cycle of ducks and to learn how to handle and care for them. Older children tell visitors that the ducklings came out of eggs. Younger children share with others what they have learned about the ducklings, such as they have webbed feet.

Staff give children roles and responsibilities to help develop their confidence. This includes having designated children each day to help tidy away toys. After they complete this task and receive stickers, children proudly show other staff their stickers and tell them what they have achieved. Children are supported to identify and manage risks in their play. For instance, when children use wooden planks of wood to make a ramp, staff ask them if they think it is safe. Children decide to move the ramp lower and proceed to try to slide down it.

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

• Staff reflect on their practice and gather feedback from parents to help evaluate how they support children's learning. For example, after evidence was gathered from parents about their children's internet use at home, they supported parents to keep their children safe online at home. Furthermore, staff help children to understand that if they are worried or anxious about anything they see on electronic devices, to tell an adult. This helps to promote children's safety.
• The curriculum that staff implement is focused on supporting children's communication and language skills. For instance, they provide small-group times where children learn how to sit, listen and develop their vocabulary. Staff ask children a good range of questions to encourage their thinking skills.
• Staff provide experiences for children to learn about healthy foods. They offer children a nutritious range of food at snack time. Children help staff to make meals, such as vegetable soup and smoothies. Staff help children to understand the benefits of food and drinks on their bodies. Children say that vegetables and water make them grow.
• Children show that they feel emotionally secure in staff's care. For instance, they allow staff to use chalk to draw around the outline of their body as they lay on the floor. Staff help children to learn the names of their peers and to develop their social interactions with others. For example, children take it in turns to pass around a toy bumble bee during a large-group time. When they hold the bumble bee, children say their names and pass it on to their friends.
• Staff share information with parents about their children's day and next steps in learning and development. Parents say that they appreciate the support they receive from staff with their children's care and development. This includes staff providing opportunities for children to take books home for their parents to read to them, helping children to develop a love of books. This helps to provide a united approach to supporting children's development.
• Overall, the activities staff plan for children are effective in supporting their development. However, sometimes, staff do not help children to build on their emerging interests during these times. Instead, they focus on what they want children to learn and do not allow children to follow their own ideas and ways in which they like to learn.
• Children learn staff's expectations for their behaviour. Staff help them to learn to share, such as when they play with shells in sand. Staff encourage children to use their words when they want objects. This results in children using good manners and kindly asking others for buckets when they play in sand. Children receive praise from staff when they show perseverance to complete tasks. For example, children concentrate when they use knives safely to cut up kiwi. They say to staff, 'Look, I'm doing it.'

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff during planned activities to support children to follow their emerging interests.