Rain Or Shine Forest Preschool Ltd - Leigh

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are safe and happy in this secure, welcoming and interesting setting. They have fun exploring the woods together, making dens and bird watching. Relationships are positive. Children confidently chat to each other and to adults. They share and take turns. For example, they make 'hedgehog soup' in the mud kitchen and share it out. Children respect the rules and boundaries that help them to behave well. They learn to express their feelings, linking colours with different emotions, such as 'red' for anger. Children independently use the 'calm den' to sit quietly if they feel upset. They follow established routines, responding promptly to signals that indicate a change of activity.

Children are encouraged to be independent. They manage their own self-care and undo the packages in their lunch boxes. Children move freely and confidently between the various activities. Staff talk to children about the activities they enjoy and use this information to plan further experiences. This helps children build on their skills and knowledge. Children link their learning to their play. For example, they recognise the sound of a crow and remember the story they heard earlier in the day.

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

• Children have many opportunities to develop their physical skills. They nimbly climb up different structures. Staff provide good support when children challenge themselves to jump from different heights to the ground. Children understand how to keep themselves safe, making sure there is space for them to jump into.
• Staff provide effective guidance for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They refer children to external professionals, such as speech therapists, for additional help where necessary. This helps children to make good progress.
• Overall, staff have high expectations for children. They identify starting points, plan appropriate activities, and assess and monitor progress to plan additional activities to develop learning. Children make good progress. Occasionally, staff are not sufficiently precise about what exactly they want children to learn from the planned activity.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents are confident that their children are safe and well cared for. They value the support and frequent communication provided by staff. At the outset, parents work with staff to establish what children can do and what their next steps should be.
• Staff benefit from regular meetings with the manager to discuss their practice and training needs. They are committed to the concept of forest school and are undertaking further training to develop their knowledge and skills. The manager and her staff frequently discuss improvements they can make to ensure this meets the needs of all the children.
• Children's communication and language skills are well supported. Staff speak clearly to children and repeat words back to them to help them with correct pronunciation. For example, when a child misses the ending of a word, staff repeat the word correctly, emphasising the ending. Children learn the names of sea creatures and discuss the feel of a bird's nest, and this helps them to expand their vocabulary.
• Children enjoy books; often choosing to look at books independently, turning the pages carefully. They use puppets to re-enact stories such as the 'Owl Babies'.
• There are a variety of activities to support early writing skills, such as using hammers to hit small tacks into cork. Children show good levels of concentration as they grate chalk to make paint. They use pipettes to squeeze the water onto the colour and this helps to strengthen their fingers.
• Overall, staff support children to understand how to have a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes, they do not build on children's understanding of how food affects the body, for example foods that support good oral health.
• There are good links with other settings that children attend, including school. Information is shared effectively and this helps to support consistency in children's learning and care.
• Children develop problem-solving skills. They discuss how to reach to make their tower taller. Children decide to stand on a crate and delightedly observe that the tower is taller than the adult.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on children's understanding of how different foods affect the body, to help further develop their understanding of healthy lifestyles
• support staff to consider the specific learning outcome when planning activities, to build on children's existing skills and knowledge.