Lilypad Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the pre-school ready to explore and join in with their friends. Staff are friendly and welcoming and have developed secure relationships with children. For example, children are greeted as soon as they arrive in the morning and encouraged to find an activity that interests them or a friend they enjoy spending time with. This promotes an environment where children feel safe and are ready to learn.

Children understand the behaviour expectations of the setting and respond well to subtle prompts that are provided by staff to help friends and join in with keeping the resources tidy. For example, when children hear the pack-away song, they know it is time to tidy up. This provides children with a sense of responsibility. Children are curious and have a positive attitude to learning. They enjoy watching Tony, the giant African land snail, and take turns feeding him pieces of cucumber. This helps children to understand the importance of caring for an animal.

Staff provide a curriculum that is ambitious and meets the needs of every child. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are extremely well supported and activities are inclusive and carefully planned. For example, staff use pictures and sign language to support communication and promote concentration. This helps to keep every child interested and make progress in their learning.

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

• Staff carefully plan a wide range of experiences that are well sequenced and support children's next steps in learning. For example, staff provide a variety of activities to support children's early writing skills, such as tweezers to pick up small plastic bugs from the light box. This helps to develop their fine motor skills, which builds muscles ready for mark making.
• Staff encourage children to count and recognise numbers during every day activities, such as counting how many blueberries there are in the snack bowl. However, staff do not build on this to include mathematical concepts, such as weight, volume or sequencing, to fully extend children's mathematical knowledge and understanding.
• Children enjoy learning about the world around them and respond well to staff teaching them about caring for the planet. Activities are provided to learn about not dropping litter and keeping plastic out of the ocean to protect the fish and other marine life. Children talk to their friends about the beach and how they will use rubbish bins. This means children are learning how to take care of the natural world.
• Staff engage in conversations with children throughout the day. They ask appropriate questions, and children are keen to respond. However, there are times when opportunities to introduce new vocabulary are not utilised.
• Staff develop positive relationships with parents and work closely to share information about children's progress and next steps in learning. Staff and parents share photos of children taking part in activities or achieving a new skill, and this helps to provide a consistent approach to learning. Parents share that they are extremely happy with the care their child receives and the progress they are making.
• Staff support children to begin to recognise and manage their own emotions. For example, at the start of the session, children are asked how they are feeling and place their name next to the feeling on a display. They are also encouraged to consider the feelings of others if they take a toy from another child or do not want to share.
• Leaders have a clear vision for the setting and work hard to ensure that the care and education provided is effective. Practice is regularly evaluated to ensure that it meets the needs of children who attend. This means there is regular oversight of the pre-school and the provision is of a high quality.
• Staff enjoy working in the pre-school and are well supported by leaders. They are encouraged to attend training, and they share new information with their colleagues. This helps staff stay up to date and work together to improve their practice.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's practice to build on children's knowledge of mathematical concepts to further support their development
• develop staff's knowledge of how to support children to learn new vocabulary and enhance their communication and language skills further.