Kingswood Pre School Group

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children of all ages are happy, confident and settled at the setting. They are excited to participate in the challenging and interesting activities that staff carefully plan for them. For example, children are eager to explore starchy material from plant roots called tapioca and food colouring to create 'frog spawn'. They go on to learn about the life cycle of a frog. Children enjoy a wide range of role play and become 'builders'. They use 'tools' to build their own 'houses'. Children are polite and behave well. They build meaningful friendships and enjoy each other's company. Children take turns with equipment with good maturity. For example, they use a timer to indicate when their time is up on a resource and kindly pass it on to their friends.

Children learn about the importance of healthy lifestyles. For example, they talk about the importance of washing their hands and how to keep their teeth and gums clean and healthy. All children develop good physical skills. They learn about the different ways that they can move their bodies. Children confidently balance on balancing beams, manoeuvre bikes around cones and play games, such as tennis. Staff use additional funding effectively to meet the individual learning needs of children. For instance, they provide children with additional sessions over lunchtime to help them build on their social skills.

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

• Staff establish secure and trusting relationships with all children. They get to know each child and their personalities well. This helps staff plan activities that they know will interest children in their learning experiences. This helps all children to make good progress. Overall, children are engaged in their learning opportunities. However, at times, staff do not quickly identify children who would benefit from adult interaction. For example, they are not always aware when it would be beneficial to support a child to choose or join an activity.
• All staff build and maintain positive relationships with parents. They communicate with them daily and keep them well involved and informed about their children's learning and achievements. Staff encourage parents to enjoy learning with their children. For instance, encouraging them to read books and create models with different materials together at home.
• The manager closely monitors the good quality of care and teaching that staff provide. She routinely observes staff teaching children and gives them helpful feedback to consider. Staff work well as a team to evaluate their practice together. For example, at the end of each day, they discuss what they feel has gone well and what they would do differently next time. They use all their findings to enhance their future practice and activity plans.
• All staff attend regular training and are keen to build on their already good skills and knowledge. They have recently learned about different ways to consistently manage children's behaviour and support them to manage their emotions. As a result, children are more aware of the boundaries and what is expected of them.
• Staff support all children to develop good communication skills. They consistently ask children thought-provoking questions. Staff give children enough time to think and then answer. Children are confident to share their thoughts and ideas. For example, they are excited to make a model television, place it on their heads as a mask and act out their own television show to their friends.
• All staff have a good understanding of all areas of learning. Overall, they successfully help children gain skills to support their future learning. For instance, children are encouraged to be patient during group games. However, staff do not consistently encourage all children to carry out tasks that they are capable of completing themselves. This includes choosing their own play and resources with more confidence and independence.
• Staff support children to gain a good understanding of the similarities and differences of people outside of their own experiences and communities. This includes traditions of other cultures and countries. For example, children learn about the Bulgarian tradition of wearing a badge to celebrate Baba Marta and welcoming in spring. Staff have recently attended training to fully understand families and children from all backgrounds.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide guidance for staff to identify when children would benefit from adult interaction to encourage their enjoyment in learning even further
• support staff to encourage children to be consistently independent and complete their own tasks.