Little Sunbeams Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter happily and settle quickly on arrival. Their individual needs are met by the staff, who have a detailed understanding of each child. Children have strong emotional attachments to the caring staff, who cuddle and comfort them as and when needed. Children concentrate well and busy themselves in a variety of activities. For example, they have fun together completing a range of puzzles. Children enjoy being physically active. For instance, they like digging with large spades in the mud area.

Children are confident in their own learning. They become immersed in their play. For example, children relish making creations in the mud kitchen, mixing water into the mud. Children make choices about what they want to do and if they want to be inside or outside. They enjoy playing together, although sometimes they struggle to share resources, which can cause minor conflict between children.

Children develop their mathematical and scientific knowledge. For instance, they practise tipping and pouring water from one container to another, exploring and investigating weight, capacity and volume. Staff interact with children, positively extending children's interest. For example, children were given ice cubes to add to the water. Children discussed the temperature and what happened to the ice cubes.

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

• Staff work well together as a team. They have high expectations for the children to make the best possible progress. This includes children who receive additional funding. Staff continually observe and assess children's development and plan an effective curriculum. They provide many opportunities for the development of large and small physical skills. For example, children enjoy building with the large foam bricks outside and building a train track inside.
• Staff provide a consistent and well-organised daily routine that children are clearly familiar with. This supports children to feel safe and secure. However, staff are not always consistent in their approach to managing children's behaviour regarding turn taking and minor conflicts.
• Staff teach good communication, language and literacy skills. For example, children listen to sounds and learn new words to match the sounds. Staff provide effective support to children who have delays in their language skills and understanding. Staff use visual aids and sign language to support children's communication skills and vocabulary, as well as their understanding of the daily routines. Staff ask the children questions, allowing them time to think and respond. Children enjoy singing familiar songs and reading books throughout the day.
• Staff provide children with some opportunities to be independent. For instance, children put their sun hats on when going outside and access their water bottles as they want them. However, at times, staff complete simple tasks for children that they could manage themselves. This does not consistently support children to develop their independence skills.
• Parents' and children's views are listened to in many ways. Staff talk to parents daily and receive regular feedback through questionnaires. They have meetings with the children to discuss the setting. This gives children opportunities to vote on events and changes to the environment.
• Staff work closely with parents to find out what children can do and to identify any gaps in their learning. They take swift action where they have concerns about children's development, working in partnership with other professionals. Staff work collaboratively with other settings that the children attend. This enables them to share information to support children's learning consistently between the two settings.
• The manager is reflective and has clear plans in place to develop the setting further. Staff have regular supervision sessions with the manager. They are supported to identify training they may wish to attend to deepen their knowledge and skills. The staff team regularly meets to review children's learning and development. This helps staff to understand children's progress and next steps in their learning accurately.
• Parents speak very highly of the setting. Staff kept in close contact with families during the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped to support children's learning and well-being. Parents value the information they receive about their children's learning and development. They feel supported by the staff, who share ideas to extend children's progress at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's knowledge to enable them to guide children in resolving minor conflicts between them, to further support children to manage their own behaviours
• provide further guidance to staff to help them promote children's independence more consistently, to enable children to extend their skills even further.