Puffins Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and keen to attend the pre-school. Staff provide them with a warm welcome to help settle them in quickly. Children move freely between the safe and secure garden and indoor playrooms, making their own choices. They enjoy creative play and using their imaginations. For example, children engage for long periods making pretend meals in the mud kitchen and explore many different materials, such as cornflower mixtures. They develop positive attitudes and good behaviour. Children make friends, help kindly and benefit from good staff role models who treat them with respect. There is a strong focus on getting involved in the local community to help children learn more about the world, such as joining elderly residents in memory-lane activities.

Staff provide a good balance of planned and child-led play in which staff encourage children's learning and help them to achieve. This includes activities to support children's experiences at home, such as helping to prepare children for trips to the dentist. They organise the environment well to provide a good balance of lively environments with calm spaces for children who prefer to play more quietly. This nurtures children's well-being and engagement. Children develop healthy lifestyles. They enjoy sociable and healthy mealtimes, practise good personal hygiene routines and join in lots of physical activity, such as games, yoga and music and movement.

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

• The strong management team has implemented many improvements to raise the quality of children's care and learning throughout the pre-school. The team has developed a broad curriculum to help children of all ages to make good progress. Staff are clear about what they intend children to learn next and support them in achieving these goals in both planned and spontaneous activities.
• Staff join in children's play with enthusiasm and respond well to their changing interests. For example, when children show an interest in the watermelon bought for the afternoon snack, staff quickly support them in exploring this. They teach them how to cut it open safely, ask if they can predict the colour inside and encourage them to feel and taste the fruit. Children create 'watermelon perfume' and take the rind outside to add sand and mud to make pretend pies. This positive interaction helps to engage children for long periods.
• Staff adapt challenges to meet children's developmental stage and to build on what they already know and can do. For example, children enjoy making 'veggie heroes' as part of the book of the week. Staff count with younger children, encourage them to learn the colours and challenge older children further to recognise and understand numerals to support their mathematical development.
• Staff ask questions to encourage children to think and talk. They introduce new words to build children's vocabulary, such as learning what aubergines and courgettes are. However, on occasions, staff do not encourage some quieter to speak and answer questions in large-group activities to support their communication and language further.
• Children develop key skills to help prepare them for starting school. They learn to manage tasks confidently for themselves from a young age, such as peeling fruit and pouring drinks. Children are eager and motivated to learn. They persevere to overcome challenges and solve problems, and they enjoy new experiences.
• The special educational needs coordinator and staff have a good understanding of the children who require additional support. They work with parents and other professionals to develop and implement plans to support the children's development and care. For example, they provide one-to-one and small-group sessions along with picture props to help children to communicate and understand meaning. Leaders use any additional funding for children to have the most impact on their learning.
• Staff build close and successful partnerships with parents. They keep parents informed about their children's well-being and development and provide learning opportunities for children to continue their learning at home. For example, children borrow books to support their literacy at home. They take 'Peter Puffin' and his overnight rucksack home with them and share his adventures when he returns. Parents share extremely positive views of their children's provision.
• Leaders value and nurture staff's well-being and provide successful coaching and professional development. This includes training and support to ensure that all staff have a good understanding of their safeguarding roles and implement the safeguarding procedures fully. Leaders follow robust procedures to ensure that all staff are suitable and prepared to fulfil their roles.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff interactions to encourage quieter children's communication and language skills even further.