Little Fawns Preschool - Abbots Langley

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children and their families on arrival. This successfully enhances their sense of belonging to the pre-school. Children's independence and self-worth is given high priority. They demonstrate a willingness to learn, behave appropriately and demonstrate that they feel safe in the care of familiar adults. Staff provide activities and age-appropriate resources that support the interests of the children. Children use their imaginations as they play with toy dinosaurs, enthusiastically imitating a dinosaur's roar. Staff join in with the children's play and successfully extend their knowledge. For example, they explain that some dinosaurs are herbivores and eat leaves from trees and shrubs.

Staff provide opportunities for children to explore the woodland environment. Children respond with enthusiasm to their designated forest names. They develop resilience and take supported risks appropriate to their abilities and the environment. For example, children carefully balance and navigate their way across ropes suspended between two trees. Staff encourage children to collect twigs to build a den and to work together to pull a roped log along the ground. These activities successfully enhance children's physical, social and problem-solving skills. Additionally, staff encourage children to make 'mud paint'. Children develop their hand-eye coordination and muscle strength as they dig in the mud and collect water in containers.

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

• The management team has worked hard since registration to develop the pre-school. They continually reflect, looking at ways to enhance the pre-school environment and opportunities for children. For example, staff have recently introduced opportunities for children to participate in woodland activities, and additional training is planned to further enhance staff's teaching skills.
• The management team and staff structure the curriculum to cover all areas of a child's development and demonstrate that they know the children well. They complete ongoing observations of the children to monitor their progress and well-being. This assists staff to understand each child's personality, interests and learning needs. Staff support the children in their chosen activities. However, on occasion, staff do not use spontaneous opportunities to further extend children's thinking as they play. Furthermore, transitions, including times when the whole group comes together, are not always effective. Staff do not consistently sustain the children's attention. Children become fidgety and move away from the group.
• Management and staff have high aspirations for all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They monitor children's progress and identify when children need extra support. Staff involve parents in discussions and decision making about their child, initiating referral procedures if required. Additionally, management and staff support families to access available funding. They use their knowledge of the children and their families to determine how to best use the funding. For example, funding has been used to enhance the development of the woodland area, which is supporting children to learn a wide range of skills effectively.
• Staff understand the importance of supporting children to develop their language, communication and literacy skills. They introduce new vocabulary associated with the children's play, such as 'push', 'pull' and 'prod', as they manipulate dough, and phrases such as 'ready, steady go' as children roll their pretend vehicles down the wooden slide. Children copy and repeat the phrase as they play. Additionally, staff read stories to children, asking appropriate questions about the illustrations on each page. Children make marks on paper and proudly share their drawings.
• Management and staff spend time talking to parents and getting to know children's care needs and stage of development before they attend. Parents are welcome to help settle their child, and home visits are offered. This successfully supports children as they transition from home to the setting. Staff provide daily updates about their child's time at the setting, including regular updates on their development. Parents are complimentary about the support that staff provide for them. For example, staff have supported them with advice on potty training, sleep routines and separation anxiety.
• Staff support children to manage their feeling and emotions to share and play cooperatively with their peers. However, a recent incident occurred when staff did not implement the setting's behaviour management policy effectively. However, the provider took immediate action to ensure that this does not happen again. Staff have completed refresher training to support their knowledge and skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff deepen their understanding of high-quality interactions and use this to extend children's learning to the highest level
• review the organisation of transitions and group times to better support children's individual needs and learning outcomes.