Kookaburra Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the playgroup happy, settled and ready for their day. Children show that they enjoy their time at playgroup. For instance, they excitedly seek out their friends and staff to pretend they are going on a picnic and making cups of tea. Younger children settle quickly and happily use switches on toys to turn them on and off. Children show positive attitudes to their learning and make good progress. Staff skilfully organise the environment to promote children's natural curiosity and eagerness to learn. Children benefit from a good range of experiences that prepare them well for their future success. For example, they learn to recognise and name 3D shapes as they build vehicles out of magnetic shapes in their play. Staff enhance children's mathematical language when they add in words, such as 'empty' 'half' and 'full', as children pour their own drinks from jugs at snack times.

Staff are positive role models and reinforce their expectations of children's behaviour well. They use a fair and gentle approach. For example, staff talk to children about how to behave at mealtimes. As a result, children are well behaved and follow the playgroup routine well. Staff recognise children's efforts and offer lots of praise when they succeed. Children respond to these positive reinforcements. This helps to boost children's confidence and self-esteem.

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

• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those in receipt of additional funding make good progress in their learning. There is a strong commitment to working with external agencies. Staff swiftly act on the advice given to them to provide purposeful activities to support children's learning. For instance, staff build in activities involving steps and rolling hoops to strengthen the physical skills children need for balance and coordination.
• Staff monitor children's progress regularly, which means they address and close any gaps in learning quickly. Recent monitoring found weaknesses in children's social skills after time away from the playgroup due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff skilfully lead extra group songs and game times to further extend children's vocabulary and support their social interactions.
• The manager completes supervision sessions for staff and holds regular team meetings. She has recently introduced sign language to improve the quality of interactions between staff and children who speak English as an additional language. This is embedded well into the children's learning activities and daily routines. The manager is highly focused on the staff's programme of professional development to further develop their knowledge and skills even further.
• Staff promote children's interest in books and familiar stories. Children readily choose their own book and share with adults. Older children narrate stories as they look at the pictures and younger children learn how to handle books appropriately. For instance, older children retell 'The Hungry Caterpillar' story excitedly to their friends using the pictures.
• Children follow daily routines with confidence and show good levels of independence. Young children feed themselves independently. Older children pour their own drinks and open their own lunch boxes. However, sometimes, the organisation of group sessions, such as during tidy up times and getting ready for going outside, means that younger children are not fully engaged as they wait for activities to begin and end.
• Partnership with parents is effective. Staff make good use of settling-in arrangements to build strong relationships with families and children. Parents say that they appreciate the daily verbal feedback they receive about their children's day at the setting and the activities given to them to support children's learning at home.
• Overall, younger children develop good communication and language skills. Staff engage in conversation with children, introducing new words to increase their vocabulary. However, some staff do not use the correct pronunciation of words when talking to children. For example, staff use the word 'da da' instead of 'daddy' and 'dum dum' instead of 'dummy'. Therefore, at times, staff do not consistently support and fully extend children's speech and language skills.
• Staff provide good opportunities for children to learn about the local community in which they live. For example, children thoroughly enjoy going by bus to visit local shops and meet shop owners. Children have the opportunity to visit local parks and search for bugs and play at the local playground. The setting has good links with local primary schools. Children become familiar with school environments during their time at playgroup. This helps them to feel secure when they move to school. n

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to enhance the organisation of larger group activities, to reduce transition time and maximise learning time
• build on staff's understanding of how to model language and further support children's communication and language skills.