Playtots

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted at the door by the friendly staff. They immediately rush in to explore the activities on offer. Staff offer a range of experiences, which they carefully plan to meet children's needs and interests. As such, children are quickly engaged in their play and learning opportunities. Staff provide a narrative to children's play. They model a two-way flow of conversation and introduce new vocabulary. When reading stories, staff talk about living on Earth and discuss what the word 'earth' means in the story.

Staff engage children in circle-time activities, where they discuss what children's favourite things are. Children take turns around the circle to share their favourite things, with staff repeating back what they have said. This encourages children's developing communication and language skills and supports their sentence structure and pronunciation.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They instil routines and boundaries to support children to know what to expect. Children soon learn the routine of the day and take cues as to what is happening next, such as songs to signify tidy-up time. Staff model manners and politeness when speaking to children and each other, which promotes a culture of respect in the setting.

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

• The provider implements an ambitious and sequenced curriculum, which builds on children's interests and next steps in learning. They complete regular observations and assessments of children to enable them to plan suitable opportunities to enhance their skills and knowledge. As such, all children make good progress.
• Staff have a good knowledge of the demographics of the area. There is a strong focus on building community links and signposting families to local services to support their individual needs. This helps to support children's holistic development.
• Staff celebrate events with children. They introduce celebrations from other countries, such as Lunar New Year, and use events, such as Bonfire Night, to talk about safety. Staff use books and props in children's play to inspire their curiosity. This leads to children wanting to find out more and helps them to learn more about the wider world and their place in it.
• Staff work closely with parents. They ask parents what they would like help with for their children's learning at home and provide home learning activity packs to help with this. Staff also share reviews each term of children's learning with parents. This helps to encourage a coordinated approach to children's development.
• Staff encourage children to sit for group activities, such as story and song time. However, they do not ensure that they sustain children's interest, such as making these sessions interactive. As a result, not all children benefit from the learning that takes place during these sessions.
• Interactions between staff and children are positive and supportive. Staff ask children lots of questions to develop children's learning. However, they do not consistently give children opportunities or time to consider their responses before answering for them. This prevents children from thinking more deeply about their ideas and articulating their own opinions.
• Children practise skills, such as self-serving their snack and washing their own dishes. They help to set up for dinner by setting out the packed lunches for their friends. This helps children to learn valuable independence skills.
• Staff know children well and have a good understanding of their needs. They make referrals for additional support for children. Staff put play plans in place to reflect the targets set by both the setting and the other professionals involved. This early identification and implementation of additional strategies help all children to make progress in their learning.
• The provider supports staff to reflect on their practice. Supervision, appraisal and staff observations take place regularly and link to training. This helps to support staff to continuously improve their practice and improve outcomes for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine group activities, such as story time and singing, to maintain all children's interest and engagement
• strengthen the use of effective questioning to ensure that staff consistently provide opportunities to develop children's thinking skills.