Little Explorers Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enthusiastically skip into the inclusive pre-school with an eagerness to play and explore. They show how they feel valued and part of their pre-school community when hanging up their belongings on their named peg, before self-registering their arrival. Children build strong and trusting attachments to staff who are incredibly attentive and caring towards them. Children excitedly show their independent drawings to staff and visitors, highlighting they have fostered a sense of accomplishment. Staff show high levels of genuine interest and ask questions about children's artwork. Because children have a chance to express themselves freely and receive specific and meaningful feedback, they build a positive self-image. This leads to increased engagement in their play and learning and a great sense of well-being.

Children thrive from real-life experiences, such as trips to the farm and outings in the local community. These opportunities ignite a love of exploration and learning to discover the around them. Children have good recall of recent experiences, such as visiting a butterfly house and watching the life cycle of a butterfly. Because staff introduce stories about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, children begin to consolidate and make connections in their learning, as they discuss how the story links to their past experiences.

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

• Teaching is very good quality. Staff are knowledgeable about what they want the children to learn. They plan a rich curriculum that helps all children make good progress in all areas of learning. The curriculum has a strong emphasis on active learning through physical, outdoor play and supporting children's social communication skills. Staff implement robust assessment processes to ensure the curriculum is ambitious and continually meeting the individual needs of all children.
• Staff plan learning experiences that consider children's interests and the weather to provide meaningful and purposeful play experiences. For example, children enjoy the cool, sensory experience of washing their babies with soap and water on a hot day. Staff adapt activities when adding jugs so younger children can practise their tipping and pouring, to support them to successfully pour their own drink at mealtimes. However, at times staff do not use all opportunities to ensure older children consistently benefit from appropriate challenge to extend their learning even further.
• All children, including those with special educational needs and or disabilities, make significant progress in their speech and language development. Staff can tap into the expertise of professionals working on site, such as speech and language therapists. Parents report that in-depth communication and ongoing involvement in their child's development plans, means they know strategies they can use to support their child's further learning at home.
• The management team works with parents closely to share information and meet children's daily needs, including offering regular meetings to discuss their child's progress. Parents express how they feel comfortable to share any concern they may have about their children. However, sometimes the quality of staff discussions and information sharing with parents is reduced, when there is a high volume of parents dropping their children off to the pre-school.
• The supportive management team provides good opportunities for staff training and support. Staff report excellent well-being and explain training recently completed has helped them to bolster children's mathematical skills to a higher level.
• Children are developing independence from a very early age because of excellent opportunities presented to them from staff. For example, children cut up their own fruit for snack and wash up their plates after eating. Water stations are great visual reminders to support children's good hygiene routines. Children often wash their hands without prompting before eating and after visiting the toilet.
• Children develop confidence in their ability to make friendships, with good modelling from staff. Staff provide opportunities to help children develop their social skills, such as reminding them to use sand timers to take turns. These life skills can help when they progress to school. Staff provide meaningful praise when children play cooperatively, which reinforces good and expected behaviours.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to consistently challenge all children's learning and build upon what they already know from learning opportunities provided
• improve how information is shared between staff and parents when children arrive to ensure children's daily needs are consistently met.