Little Leaves Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children of all ages and abilities are happy, settled and confident. They have a positive attitude towards their learning and enjoy the motivating experiences that staff carefully plan for them. For example, they are excited to act out their favourite story on a large scale as they hunt for a bear in the woodland area. This supports children to recall the story with imagination and build on their communication skills. Children are independent. For example, they confidently choose their own play and complete their own tasks.

Staff are positive role models and manage any rare challenging behaviour calmly and appropriately. All children know what is expected of them and are polite and behave well. Children are kind and empathetic towards each other and respect each other's differences. Children learn about the benefits of healthy lifestyles. They choose whether to engage in exercise and active play or enjoy rest and quieter activities. All children gain good physical abilities. For example, they negotiate space well as they run and learn new skills, such as kicking a ball. Children develop good communication skills. They are confident to share their own ideas during role-play activities. For instance, when they become 'vets', they make up their own narrative.

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

• All staff establish secure and trusting relationships with children. They get to know their individual personalities and what makes them unique. Staff know children's individual needs well, and this helps them plan learning experiences that they know children will enjoy.
• All children have a good sense of belonging and positive levels of well-being and self-esteem. Children are eager to come into the setting and enjoy the company of both their friends and staff.
• The manager and staff establish positive partnerships with parents. They keep them well involved and informed about their children's achievements and what they have enjoyed participating in daily. Staff share useful ideas with parents to help them enjoy learning at home together with their children. This includes recipes and instructions on how to make play dough.
• Staff support all children to make good progress. This includes children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff liaise closely with outside specialists to implement helpful ideas to support children. For example, they have created a den for children to access if they become overwhelmed.
• Staff liaise with parents to ensure they know about any information that has been shared with them by staff at other settings that children also attend. However, they do not consistently communicate with other settings directly. They do not use more effective ways to establish positive partnerships with staff there. Therefore, staff do not provide the highest level of consistency to the children's shared care and learning experiences.
• The manager ensures that she follows all safety and suitability checks when employing staff and recruiting committee members. Ongoing suitability is checked as part of the regular one-to-one meetings held with staff. The manager monitors the good quality of care and teaching children receive from the dedicated team.
• Staff evaluate the setting together routinely. They observe each other teaching and interacting with children. They provide constructive feedback, which is used to support their future practice.
• All staff attend regular and beneficial training. They have made good use of recent training where they learned about the different ways that boys learn and play. As a result, all children, including the boys, remain engaged in their experiences and make good progress in all areas of learning.
• Overall, staff successfully support children to develop a good understanding of people's similarities and differences outside of their own experiences. For example, they talk about festivals, such as Chinese New Year. However, some staff are uncertain of what other languages children speak or hear at home. Therefore, they do not fully support children who speak English as an additional language to develop their full range of language skills even further.
• Staff use additional funding effectively to meet the individual learning needs of children. For instance, they provide children with additional sessions and purchase resources around their individual interests. This has helped staff settle them quickly into the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further improve teaching to help staff support children who speak English as an additional language
• build more effective partnerships with staff at other settings that children also attend.