Magic Box Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff greet children warmly as they enter the pre-school. Children build strong bonds with staff and thrive on the attention that they receive. Parents are very positive about the experienced, caring and friendly staff team. They say that staff genuinely enjoy spending time with the children and children receive amazing emotional support.

Staff form plans from their observations of children, recognising their achievements and working out what they need to learn next. They work together to thoughtfully set up a stimulating and interesting environment, closely linked to children's ages, stages of development and interests. This motivates children successfully. They explore sensory materials outside. They learn about capacity, discussing how full various items are, and explore concepts such as floating and sinking. Children's communication and social skills develop well. Younger children learn new words and begin to share resources. Older children form good friendships and converse well, communicating their needs effectively. Staff support children to have a go and persevere with tasks, developing children's thinking skills and confidence well. Older children show very good skills as they count, compare and add numbers. Children show positive attitudes to new experiences and taking on challenges. They make good progress, including children who are in receipt of additional funding and children who speak English as an additional language.

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

• Staff promote strong community links. They make the most of the opportunities in the local area. They attend events at the nearby church to broaden children's understanding of the world. They visit the village school to build children's confidence and knowledge of the different environment. They hold family days and work to include all family members, with innovative events at the pre-school, such as a 'Father's Day breakfast' that children, dads and granddads all really enjoy.
• Staff focus on children's early literacy skills. They make story time fun. Children borrow books to enjoy with their families at home. Some children follow their interests in dinosaurs, finding dinosaur books to look at in the book area. Children enjoy making marks. Younger children explore on a larger scale and relish painting with water outside. Older children select clipboards and pens and use their finer motor movements to draw recognisable shapes or write numbers.
• Each child's key person links with parents when children start to gain knowledge of children's needs and interests. Many staff then continue to gain more information in the following weeks and they quickly build strong knowledge of children's needs. However, some staff do not gain as much information. Additionally, they do not liaise with providers of other settings children attend in a timely fashion. They therefore do not promptly get a full picture of children's needs to inform future planning, provide a consistent approach and ensure that children make the best possible progress.
• Children develop their independence skills and sense of responsibility well. Even the younger children help tidy away toys. They change their shoes, listening carefully to staff's well-placed tips. They take an active part in mealtimes. Older children show very good skills, spreading their butter on their toast. They conscientiously tidy their things away after lunch, putting items in the bin and placing their bags on the trolley. They are keen to do things for themselves and are proud of their achievements.
• Staff lead beneficial group activities to promote children's skills. Children enjoy registration time and their 'wake and shake' session. Older children listen well and are confident and keen to join in activities. However, during some group activities, support for the younger children is not as strong and they are unsure of the aims of the activity and what to do. Consequently, their involvement and learning are not as high as they could be.
• The manager gains the views of parents and children and works with staff and the pre-school's committee to identify ways to develop the provision. She leads regular team meetings and individual supervision meetings with staff. Morale is high in the long-standing team. Staff are dedicated to the children and families that they support. They are constantly seeking new ideas and attend training to develop the practice at the pre-school further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend the information gained when children first start to get a clearer picture of children's needs and to inform future planning more quickly
• enhance the support for younger children during whole-group activities to extend their involvement and learning even further.