Opportunity Group Frome & District

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and settle quickly into the routine of the day. They show a strong sense of belonging and engage well with the warm and caring staff. Children benefit greatly from a broad curriculum, planned around their developmental needs and emerging skills. Children excitedly take part in mini athletics. They run and jump and develop good hand-to-eye coordination as they throw balls to knock cones over. This develops children's confidence and self-esteem effectively.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, communication has remained good between the parents and staff throughout. Although parents do not currently come into the setting, staff greet each family individually at the door to share information and ensure children's happiness and well-being. This helps parents to feel involved in their children's learning.

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

• Overall, children behave well. They have a good understanding of right and wrong. Staff use effective strategies and consistently encourage children to manage their behaviour for themselves. Staff support children to recognise and talk about their feelings. Children have a positive attitude to learning and engage in activities with enthusiasm.
• Children use a range of recyclable materials, practise their cutting skills, and skilfully use a sticky tape dispenser to create models and pictures. Staff encourage children to use their problem-solving skills to think about how they can stick things together or make a hole in cardboard to develop their ideas. Children demonstrate an artistic flare and good imagination.
• Staff use language well to extend children's vocabulary. Children plant herbs outside and learn what they need to do to help them grow. They experiment with pouring water into a tube to see if they can get a ball to float to the surface. They pour water from one container to another. However, staff do not encourage children to count or begin to use the language associated with volume or capacity.
• Children thoroughly enjoy taking part in a wide range of child-initiated play and adult-led activities. However, staff do not consistently organise adult-led group activities as effectively as they could, to support all children to participate fully and focus for longer periods.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents recognise that their children are more independent since starting at the setting. Staff understand the importance of effective partnership working with parents and the positive impact that this has on children's learning and well-being.
• Since the last inspection, the provider has rearranged areas of the provision to ensure that staff's personal mobile phones are stored appropriately. Furthermore, staff have completed more safeguarding training and increased their knowledge of all aspects of safeguarding to help keep children free from harm.
• Staff promote healthy lifestyles. Children follow thorough hygiene routines and understand the importance of good handwashing. They dress themselves for outside play with little assistance from staff, developing a range of skills in readiness for starting school.
• Staff know the children well. The manager, in partnership with the special educational needs coordinator, is proactive in seeking early help for children when needed. This helps to ensure that children receive the support that they need, so they can make the best possible progress in relation to their individual starting points.
• The manager and staff work closely as a team. They regularly reflect on their practice and assess the quality of the provision. Staff have good training opportunities to increase their knowledge. For example, some staff have completed 'emotion coaching' training. As a result, staff recognise that the children have more self-control.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more opportunities for children to count and learn about volume and capacity
• support staff to develop further strategies to engage older children more consistently in large group activities.