Little Stars Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This good quality setting is a hive of adventure and fun. Children's laughter fills the air as they arrive and the atmosphere buzzes with their excitement to explore. Children appear happy and safe. They display high levels of confidence. They greet their friends with hugs and beam with delight as they run towards their key person for cuddles. Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, parents do not enter the setting in the usual way. Children have adapted exceptionally well to the new routines. For example, they leave their parents at the gate with great ease.

Children show enjoyment and interest in the activities on offer. They become fascinated while searching for bugs outdoors and delight in finding snails. They handle the snails with great care and use magnifying glasses to take a closer look. Children relish this opportunity to engage in thoughtful conversations about the food snails might eat. They consolidate this learning further by looking at books to find out more information about snails. This supports children's growing understanding of the world.

Staff support children's physical development very well. They encourage children to take appropriate risks during their play, such as balancing and climbing on low-level apparatus. Children cheer and shout 'goal', as they score while playing football. They show good perseverance as they confidently ride scooters and tricycles. Children show care towards one another, behave well and talk about the importance of being a good friend.

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

• The dedicated manager, ably supported by her deputy manager, leads the setting with an absolute conviction that all children with achieve. Overall, self-evaluation is sharply focused and improvement plans are regularly monitored. The manager aspires to be outstanding and aims for the setting to be a centre of excellence.
• Although systems are in place for staff supervision and appraisals, leaders do not monitor staff practice with rigour. This means that staff do not always receive incisive feedback about their professional practice, in order to raise standards in their teaching to a higher level.
• Children are provided with an ambitious and exciting curriculum that builds on what they know and can do. Staff provide meaningful learning experiences that captures children's interests and keeps them motivated to learn. For example, staff have created a 'beach hut' outdoors, as many children have shown a fascination about the beach. Staff have extended this by introducing an ice cream parlour. Children are enthusiastic as they make 'ice creams', talk about different sea shells, and describe the texture of sand.
• Overall, partnership working is good. Many parents provide lots of praise for the staff. They commend them on their loving nature and state that they could not have chosen a better place for their children to learn. However, leaders have not been highly effective in establishing stronger partnerships with some parents and the other settings children also attend. This means that, on occasion, information is not consistently shared to ensure that children make the best possible progress.
• Staff teach children well about the world they live in. They learn about different cultures, religions, and family units. Children articulately discuss how some families are different, such as those with two dads. Children are resilient and self-assured individuals, who are developing a broad and reasoned understanding of respect and acceptance. They behave well and show positive attitudes towards their learning.
• The support that is in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is a strength of the setting. Intervention plans are regularly monitored and gaps in learning are targeted with precision. This means that children make good progress and are well prepared for their move to school.
• The key-person system is highly effective in helping children to settle. Staff spend time getting to know children during the settling-in period. Children's emotional well-being is given the utmost priority. Staff are skilled in supporting children who may need additional emotional support. For example, they provide targeted activities such as yoga, which have a positive impact on children's well-being.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine the programme of professional development, in order to provide staff with more incisive feedback to raise their practice to the highest level
• strengthen partnership working with parents and other settings, in order to help children make the best possible progress across the areas of learning.