LITTLE CURIOSITIES

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at Little Curiosities Pre-School. They receive cuddles and reassurance from staff, which help them to separate easily from their main carers. Children access the resources and activities freely regardless of their gender or developmental needs. For example, they enjoy exploring coloured rice and water, which promote their hand muscles in preparation for early writing. Outdoors, children use ride-on toys and balancing steps, which support their strong physical skills effectively. Children's behaviour is good. This can be seen in the way they play either alongside or with each other, sharing and taking turns.

Children respond well to staff's high expectations for their learning. For example, during group time, they are able to recall information about the Holi Festival, which shows their increasing vocabulary. Children practise counting and sorting items to help them gain strong mathematical skills. They enjoy sharing their weekend news with others and ask their friends questions which show that they are interested. Children are keen to sing songs, such as about the days of the week and the months of the year. They demonstrate that they feel safe and secure.

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

• Since registering with Ofsted, the manager has worked hard to provide children with good-quality care and education. She places a strong emphasis on teaching children the knowledge and skills that they need for the next step in their education. For example, the manager encourages children to do manageable tasks for themselves, to promote their independence skills.
• Staff develop children's love of books, songs and rhymes. One of the ways they do this is by ensuring a wide variety of books is available to children at all times. Children delight as they listen to stories being read to them. They also look at books independently with their peers. This enables children, including those who speak English as an additional language, to make rapid progress in their speaking skills.
• The support for children who need additional help is strong. Staff use their observations and assessments to quickly identify and refer gaps in children's learning. As a result, children make good progress from their individual starting points.
• The manager carries out regular supervision meetings with staff and offers them training opportunities. For example, following training, staff have improved their knowledge of how to support children who prefer to play outdoors. This has increased children's self-esteem and confidence. However, the manager acknowledges that she needs to sharpen the monitoring of staff's practice to increase their professional effectiveness.
• Children are motivated to learn. They enjoy playing with malleable resources, such as play dough, sand and water. However, during some of the planned activities, there are fewer opportunities for children to explore art materials and develop their own ideas.
• Staff praise and encourage children regularly throughout the day, which supports their emotional well-being effectively. This helps children to behave well.
• Staff are good at promoting children's individual characters, such as the way they prefer to socialise with others. They talk to parents about their children's cultures and backgrounds to help them support their emotional security. In addition, staff ask parents for basic words in their home language to help children feel welcomed and valued.
• Parents speak highly of staff, who they find friendly and approachable. They state that staff give them daily updates about their children's developmental needs. This practice supports children's learning effectively in pre-school and at home.
• The self-evaluation process is evident. The manager often reflects on what they do well and how this can be further improved for the children. For instance, she has recently introduced sport sessions to enhance children's physical skills. The manager also ensures that children have regular trips in the local community, such as to the allotment. This increases children's interest and understanding of the world around them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• sharpen the monitoring of staff's performance to enhance their professional effectiveness
• make more use of opportunities to enable children to explore different materials and use their imaginations, to further develop their creative skills.