Little Explorers Pre-School@Pulborough

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted by staff on arrival. This helps children to enter the pre-school confidently and excitedly greet their friends. The nurturing staff are attentive, and particularly sensitive to children who have recently started attending. This supports all children to settle quickly. Children independently put their belongings away and find their own names to hang on the 'self-registration tree'. This helps children feel a positive sense of belonging. They are eager to explore the day's activities, which have been thoughtfully created by staff, and swiftly become engrossed in their play.

Children have a positive attitude towards their learning. Staff encourage children to persevere when challenges occur. As such, children confidently embrace challenge and keep trying, even when they do not succeed at first. They are proud of their own achievements and those of others, and staff regularly praise and encourage them. Children have good relationships with their friends as they share, take turns and play imaginatively together. Staff calmly support children to work through occasional minor conflicts, which helps them to understand their emotions. Children have good personal, social and emotional skills.

Staff provide frequent opportunities for children to practise their skills. This helps children to develop independence. For example, children pour their own drinks and cut their own fruit for snack. Children delight in sharing their pride when they complete these tasks. The relationships staff have with all children are strong, and children seek them out for comfort, play and praise.

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

• Leaders and staff plan an ambitious, well-balanced curriculum, which is effectively sequenced throughout the pre-school. Staff know the children particularly well. They understand children's uniqueness, how they learn and what sparks their individual curiosity to engage them in their play and learning. Staff know what skills children have already learned and what they need to learn next. As such, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make the good progress they are capable of.
• Staff carefully plan interesting and exciting activities for children to delve into. Generally, children immerse themselves in their play, while skilful staff support them and extend these experiences. However, some planned group activities are not well organised. As a result, occasionally, some children become distracted and disengaged, and so do not fully benefit from the learning opportunities on offer.
• Children have ample opportunities to develop their physical skills. They access the 'funky finger station', which is continually set up with activities to promote their dexterity, strengthen their small muscles and develop hand-to-eye coordination. For example, children concentrate as they pinch tweezers to pick up conkers, and intently practise their threading skills with fine strings and threading boards. Through these activities, staff help children gain important physical skills for early writing. Children also have access to a large outdoor area, where they run, jump and balance with friends. This supports children's overall physical development and builds effectively on their existing skills.
• Staff understand the importance of supporting children's communication and language. They model and repeat words, engage in meaningful back-and-forth conversations with children, and carefully narrate children's play. They read stories with enthusiasm, and children join in with familiar words. Staff are skilful in their approach to asking children questions. They give children time to pause, think and respond. Staff expose children to new words such as 'textures' and 'squashy'. This supports all children, including those with speech delay, to make good progress in their language development.
• Leaders and staff recognise the importance of creating an inclusive culture. Staff adapt and tailor activities, as well as the environment, to suit the needs of all children. They are positive, inclusive role models. As such, children are kind and thoughtful and recognise when others may need some help. For example, older children take the hands of younger, less-confident children and lead them to join in with their play. This culture enhances children's abilities to recognise and respond to the needs of others, which helps to prepare them for life in modern Britain.
• Staff feel well supported by leaders, who work closely alongside their staff. Although staff supervision is in place, this is not fully effective. Leaders have not fully developed the use of supervision sessions to support staff to refine their practice and continually improve their effectiveness.
• Partnership with parents is a strength at this pre-school. Parents are highly complementary of the support that they and their children receive from all staff. Parents comment that 'staff go above and beyond'. They report that their children are making good progress. Staff ensure that their communication with parents is a priority and offer a variety of communication methods for families.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop the planning of group activities so that all children taking part benefit more fully from the intended learning
• strengthen staff supervision to help staff continually improve their personal effectiveness.