Pippins Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled at the pre-school, and their behaviour demonstrates how much they enjoy themselves. Staff create a welcoming and calm environment, where they provide a wealth of activities to interest children. Children happily enter and go straight to the large outdoor area. They delight in splashing in muddy puddles, preparing pretend pancakes in the mud kitchen and tenderly washing baby dolls. They have close bonds with their key person and enjoy playing alongside them, smiling as they interact together.

Children are inclusive of one another and are happy to invite friends into their play. They share the resources and enjoy helping each other, such as making play dough from scratch. Children are given lots of choice, including how they want to use resources. This allows them the freedom of creativity and increases their engagement. They focus and concentrate carefully on many activities, such as guessing the musical instrument, story time, creating emotion faces and building outdoor dens.

Staff have high expectations for every child. They set appropriate challenges for children, to support their individual progress. Younger children explore new vocabulary like 'rosemary' and 'mint' when playing in the mud kitchen, while older children follow instructions to make a pretend meal using quantities. Children are supported well to become confident, happy and social, with a wide breadth of knowledge about the world around them.

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

• Staff have an in-depth knowledge of each child's needs and create next steps to support them to make good progress. They use careful assessment and planning to deliver fun and engaging activities. Staff are particularly effective at supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For example, they deliver one-to-one sessions to focus on concentration and positive self-worth. However, staff focus less well on the needs of the children as a group. This means that they are not always clear about what they want children to learn from group activities.
• Staff use questioning to expand on children's understanding and critical-thinking skills. For example, children enjoy exploring how to make an outdoor den and why different objects float or sink. Children show good knowledge and recall previous learning and vocabulary. Children repeat activities for practise and remember the new skills they have learned.
• Staff ensure they know children well and use their current interests to plan activities that will inspire them. Children show great perseverance and a can-do attitude when trying to wrap different shapes, and they grasp new skills, such as using scissors. They sit and listen very well and enjoy group times, such as stories and games.
• Staff are good at ensuring that children understand the rules and routines. They use bells and songs, visual timelines and gentle reminders. Children happily follow the routines, confident that they know what is coming next, happy to tidy away resources together and get ready for group times and lunch. This helps them to feel settled and to cope well with transitions.
• Staff promote children's independence skills, such as dressing, feeding themselves and washing their hands. However, less consideration is given to ensuring that the personal needs of all children are met appropriately. Furthermore, sometimes, children are not given the privacy they should have when receiving personal care. This does not support all children to understand what is appropriate for their age.
• Children thoroughly enjoy spending extended periods of time in the forest school area. Staff provide a calm and welcoming environment, where children can freely explore and gain independence. They delight in finding various bugs and talk about how best to treat them. They smile as they are pushed on the swing and concentrate when whittling a stick to make their own pencils. Staff use this opportunity to support children to make good progress in their confidence, resilience and communication skills.
• The manager has a good improvement plan in place to continue to improve both the physical environment and the education and care provided. She supports her staff to feel empowered and part of a supportive team. Training is regularly sought to enhance the provision and to help build staff's personal confidence and abilities. Staff are knowledgeable and caring, and they strive to provide the best care and education they can to all children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's understanding of the specific intent for planned group activities, ensuring they are clear on what they want children to learn
• ensure personal hygiene practices meet the needs of all children appropriately.