Ladybird Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The pre-school's motto, 'enrichment beyond the classroom', is reflected well in staff's practice. They take children on regular visits to their favourite local landmark. Children relish retelling how they climb an 'enormous hill' to get there. On their return, they visit the park, where they balance and climb on play equipment. Children demonstrate good physical development and high motivation for their learning. While out, they are encouraged to think about the world around them. Staff use skilful questioning. Children are asked, 'Where have all the flowers gone?' They respond, 'They have died because it was too cold.' They share that 'they grow in spring'. All children benefit from the ambitious curriculum and high expectations from staff and management.

Children build strong relationships with staff, enabling them to feel happy and safe at pre-school. They enjoy role playing in a café. Using the mark-making skills they have learned, they take their friends' and staff's orders. They enjoy the sensory exploration of shaving foam and paint. Making marks in the foam, children share with friends their pride in what they have achieved, exclaiming, 'I wrote my name!' and 'I made a triangle!' Children build self-esteem and develop strong hand muscles ready for early writing and starting school.

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

• Staff provide lots of opportunities for children's social development. Children delight at joining in with dancing and ring games. These group activities get children moving in different ways and working together. Children demonstrate good teamwork and benefit from lots of physical activity.
• Children make good progress with their communication and language development. They show high engagement as they sit together on sofas to sing songs and listen to a story about a caterpillar. They hold felt fruit as they wait for their part in the story, which helps to capture every child's attention. Children benefit from sharing these times together as a group and absorb new vocabulary.
• Staff support children to develop independence and make choices through routines such as 'café style snack'. Children choose what they would like to eat and how they would like to prepare it. Older children cut their fruit, spread their toast and pour their drinks. Younger children demonstrate this emerging independence during other tasks, for example brushing their teeth, washing their hands after messy activities and recognising a need to put on their coats to go outside.
• Management is passionate about coaching staff and cascading knowledge. They support staff to try new approaches and learn from their mistakes. Children are also encouraged to solve problems effectively. They enjoy exploring magnetic movable guttering to direct balls from the top of a board to the bottom. Staff use questions to encourage children's thinking and motivate them to persist at testing out ideas. As a result, children become good problem-solvers and are confident to share their ideas.
• Parents share that managers go out of their way to support them and their children. They report receiving regular updates about their children's day. For example, they are told the number and letter of the week that children are learning about. This helps parents to talk to their children about their day, which further embeds their learning.
• Management works with local primary schools to support children's transitions. They arrange for children to visit schools and organise for teachers to visit the pre-school. This helps children to become familiar with teachers and the environment in preparation for starting school.
• Staff and children join the community to commemorate important events, for example when the Queen visited Bruton. This helps them learn about the place that they live. However, there are limited opportunities for children to explore culture and diversity.
• Children who speak English as an additional language (EAL) are happy and settled in the pre-school. Staff treat all children as unique individuals. They listen to them and show value in their opinions. However, staff do not provide children who speak EAL with opportunities to use their home language within the pre-school so that they can communicate confidently and develop relationships with others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more opportunities for children to explore different cultures and diversity
• provide children who speak EAL with opportunities to use their home language in the pre-school, so that they increase their confidence in communicating and playing with others.