Oasis Family Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

There is a buzz of excitement as children move around the room safely and with confidence. Children decide where to play and engage in their chosen activity. They develop their physical skills and play cooperatively together. Children investigate how to use the blocks and tubes to build towers. They talk to each other and staff as they negotiate which block to put on next. Children jump up and down and scream with delight as the tower topples over. They enjoy staff's company and chat to them about what they are doing and that they want to build their tower 'taller than themselves'.

Children have an eagerness to learn and take part in activities the staff provide. They laugh and giggle as they feed 'Maniki', the monkey puppet, a banana. This encourages children to settle into the group activity. Children sit, concentrate and listen as staff read stories and encourage the children to act out songs. They learn early mathematical skills as they sing songs using decreasing numbers. Children estimate how many pumpkins there are in the bowl and shout, 'no more left', as a child buys the last pumpkin.

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

• The manager is knowledgeable and passionate about the centre. She supports staff by carrying out supervisions and appraisals to help improve their practice. Staff enhance their professional development to aid children's learning. The manager explains how a course on sensory processing helps staff to think about how they can develop children's senses even further.
• The manager and staff have a curriculum that is exciting and promotes children's interests. Staff provide opportunities for children to be curious and explore. For example, children crunch leaves in their hands and stick conkers and fir cones into their play dough creations. This helps to strengthen their fingers and develop their small-muscle skills in preparation for holding tools, such as a pencil.
• Staff care for and educate children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They provide an atmosphere that promotes calm and relaxation for these children. Staff use sign language to help children communicate and visual aids so they know what is happening next, to help children's understanding of the routines of the day. Staff work well with outside agencies, such as the inclusion officer, to support children's individual needs.
• Parents praise the work the manager and staff do for their children. Staff inform parents about their children's learning. They talk with them at collection times about what their children do. Staff find out about children's experiences at home and build on these to broaden their learning. For example, some children have less opportunities at home to look at books. The centre enables children to choose from a range of books at the centre and take them home to read with their parents.
• Staff are good models for children's behaviour and encourage children to do things for themselves. Children take turns and develop their self-care skills. They know where to put their coats and bags on arrival, when and where to wash their hands and pour their own drinks at snack time. Children wait their turn to have a piece of fruit and learn to peel the skin off their bananas. These activities help develop children's independence and future learning in readiness for school.
• Staff promote children's speaking skills, overall. They comment on what children are doing, read stories to them and sing songs with them. This help children's understanding of words. However, staff do not always name an object or toy when they are talking to children. For example, they say 'it' or 'them' instead of saying the noun. This does not help to extend children's speaking skills or increase their vocabulary.
• Staff maintain a safe environment. They provide activities for children to take their own risks, such as using scissors to cut play dough. However, staff do not provide children with explanations to help them learn to assess and manage risks for themselves. For instance, children use knives in the role-play area and stab at turnips to cut them. Staff do not use this time to help children understand how to use such implements safely.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to strengthen how they model language to extend children's speaking skills and to help increase their vocabulary
• provide children with explanations to help their understanding of potential dangers in their play, so that they can learn to assess risk and keep themselves safe.