Little Furze Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy choosing toys and activities that interest them. They learn to share and take turns with their peers, which helps them to build important social skills. Children play together to build a tall tower out of wooden bricks and excitedly show staff what they have done. Children welcome help from staff to lift them up so that they can place bricks on the tower when they can no longer reach the top. They laugh when the tower topples and talk about what might have caused this to happen. This helps children to develop their skills to think and solve problems for themselves.

Children begin to manage age-appropriate risks for themselves. They consider how slippery outside surfaces and steps might be when it is frosty. Children listen to the advice given by staff to be careful while they work out if they can walk, run or climb without slipping. This helps children gain confidence in their own abilities to keep themselves safe.

From a young age, children learn how to put their coats on for themselves and how to clear away their plates and cups after snack time. This helps children to develop the confidence and skills for independence in preparation for moving on to nursery or school.

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

• Since the last inspection, the management team and staff have made significant improvements to help keep children safe and to raise the personal development of children. For example, all staff attended training to help increase their understanding of how to manage children's behaviour in ways that foster a harmonious atmosphere in the pre-school.
• The manager and her deputy have a clear overview of the progress that all children make. This helps to ensure that any gaps in learning are quickly addressed through focused teaching and learning opportunities.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are supported effectively. Staff take time to speak clearly to children and use picture cues and gestures to help strengthen their communication. Children confidently lead staff to show them what they want or need. Staff sit with children to read them books and use simple sentences and phrases to ask questions or to give explanations. This helps children to build on their vocabularies.
• The manager uses additional funding effectively for individual children. She finds out from children's key persons what equipment or activities are most beneficial to help support children's individual learning. This helps children to build on what they already know and understand.
• Children are keen to learn. They enthusiastically accept challenges staff set them, such as completing even more complex puzzles compared to those they have already finished. Staff give children stickers in recognition of their achievements. Children are proud to show others their stickers. This helps to build their self-esteem and motivates them to have a go at new tasks.
• Children settle well in the pre-school. They quickly build trusting relationships with their key person and other staff. When children first join the pre-school, staff find out what they are interested in, which helps to give a focus for the resources that staff use to support learning. This helps children to build on what they know and understand from their early days in pre-school.
• Staff plan children's days so that they have opportunities to learn in different environments. For example, children run, climb and balance in the garden, which helps to promote their physical development. However, there are times when the inside is more popular. At times, this results in this area becoming crowded. This means that children do not always have space to freely explore and use resources effectively to help maximise their learning and individual expression.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and make use of the available space in the most effective way to further enhance children's learning and well-being.