Little Wisp Hedge End Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show they feel safe in the staff's attentive care. For example, children approach them for cuddles and reassurance when needed. Staff know the children well. They understand what children like to do and play with. This helps staff to set out resources and activities to motivate and engage children in their play and learning. Children are confident to make choices about what to play with and where to play. Staff provide good support for children's emotional well-being.

The provider and leaders plan a broad curriculum for children to teach them a variety of skills. They place a strong focus on helping children to become independent. For instance, staff teach children to know where they store their belongings and to pour their own drinks. Staff are supportive and provide encouragement and gentle guidance to children, helping them all to achieve. For instance, staff help younger children learn how to wash up their plates after snack time. Children beam with pride when they master new tasks. They receive warm praise from staff. This supports their self-esteem well.

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

• Staff provide an attractive learning environment for children. They listen to children's views and take account of these when setting out resources for the following day. For example, children are delighted to find a sensory tray filled with hidden numbers and dinosaurs. Children benefit from a good variety of planned activities that staff provide to stimulate their learning.
• Staff swiftly identify where children may need additional help for their learning. They put plans in place to close any gaps. For instance, staff run language groups to support children's communication and attention. This helps all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress.
• Children benefit from positive interactions with staff. For example, staff model speech, introduce new words and provide a play commentary. This helps children hear a broad range of vocabulary and supports their developing speech well. The provider and leaders have used additional funding to train staff to use sign language to improve their skills further. This supports all children to communicate their wants and needs confidently.
• Staff teach children to recognise their emotions. They provide good support for children to learn how they may be feeling. At times, some children find this difficult and staff are calm, reassuring and positive, helping children to regulate their behaviour. Staff work with parents effectively, helping them deliver the same approach. This ensures that children have good continuity for their care.
• Generally, teaching is good. Staff provide meaningful learning experiences for children, such as decorating a Christmas tree and prompting children to talk about their own experiences at home. At times, however, staff are not confident to build even more on what children already know. On occasion, this does not fully support children to develop their skills further.
• Children enjoy sharing books in small groups or individually with staff. This helps children learn to listen to and enjoy stories. However, some large group adult-led activities are less successful. For instance, staff do not fully consider children's needs when planning story time. At times, they do not offer children the support they need to sit and focus, and this disrupts the group. Consequently, not all children benefit from staff's planned teaching.
• Staff plan a variety of activities to support children to play energetically. For example, they lead regular music and movement sessions, and encourage running outdoors. However, staff do not always organise the transition outdoors effectively. At times, children wait too long for staff to be ready, and lose interest.
• Children enjoy opportunities to experience the wider world. For instance, staff take them out for walks in the local community. Children meet different people and see different places. This helps them to learn about the world in which they are growing up.
• The provider and leaders offer staff good support for their well-being. They have effective systems in place to allow all staff to have regular meetings. Staff report they feel valued in their role.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to increase their knowledge further of how to adapt their teaching skills to build on children's learning
• review and improve the organisation of adult-led group times to ensure that children are challenged and remain focused on their learning
• strengthen the organisation of routine transitions to better support children so they do not become restless and disengaged.