Little Hearts Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy and settled in this nurturing pre-school. They confidently enter the pre-school, greet their friends and are eager to start their day. Children use resources to create games and play imaginatively. For example, children add feathers and eyes to dough to create a parrot. They add golf tees to their dough and pretend they are candles in a birthday cake. They enthusiastically sing 'Happy Birthday' to their friends. Staff encourage children's mathematical development effectively. Children are encouraged to regularly use mathematical language in their play. They confidently count and measure as they make dough. This helps children to develop their understanding of weight and quantity.

Children's behaviour is good. They demonstrate a positive attitude towards learning as they become fully engrossed in activities. For example, children concentrate and work together as they design and create a bug hotel.

Children have excellent opportunities to develop their physical skills. They access a well-resourced outdoor area and forest school. Children use planks and crates to create their own obstacle course. This helps to develop children's balance and coordination. Children learn how to keep themselves safe. For example, they know they must wear helmets when riding on tricycles. Staff teach children how to safely handle scissors as they move around the room. In addition, children are beginning to carry out their own risk assessments of the outdoor area.

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

• The manager is an excellent support to the team. Staff attend regular meetings, where their reflect upon their practice. Regular training sessions help to keep their knowledge up to date and support them to carry out their roles. Staff's well-being is paramount. They share how they feel during one-to-one weekly meetings and through regular supervision sessions. Staff comment that the manager is caring and approachable.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is good. Children who might need additional support are identified quickly. Staff work closely with the local authority, other childcare providers and health visitors. The dedicated special educational needs coordinator ensures individual plans are put in place to help them to make the best possible progress.
• Parents say that staff are warm, caring and nurturing. The pre-school uses an online app to send parents photos and information about what children are learning. Staff share ideas and suggestions with parents about how to further support children's learning at home.
• The manager and her team have an ambitious curriculum. Staff sequence the curriculum to support children's continued development well. For example, children learn to pour their own drinks and collect their plates at lunchtime. However, occasionally, staff do not consistently focus on what specifically they want children to learn next.
• Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children behave well and are beginning to manage their feelings. When children struggle with their behaviour, staff encourage them to resolve their own conflicts, before stepping in to provide support. This helps children to learn empathy and to understand different feelings and emotions.
• When children are ready to move on to school, staff set up a transition meeting. Children see their new school uniforms and find out about what it will be like when they go to school. Children share their lunch break with school children. Furthermore, they attend church with the whole school, weekly. This helps to prepare children for their next stage in their education.
• Overall, staff provide a language-rich environment. They speak clearly to children and introduce new vocabulary. For instance, children learn how bees 'pollinate' flowers. Staff ask age-appropriate questions. However, occasionally, staff answer the questions they pose too quickly, without giving children the chance to reply.
• Children's literacy skills are well supported. Staff share books with children and read with excitement in their voices as they become the characters from the story. Children identify their own name cards and are beginning to write independently. For instance, children write signs for their bug hotel and eagerly tell staff the sign says 'bugs only'. This helps to develop children's early reading and writing skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's understanding of curriculum intentions to enable them to focus specifically on what children need to learn next
• provide children with more time to respond in conversation and independently think through their ideas to extend learning even further.