Romsey Mill Pre-school (Hemingford Road)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and parents receive a warm welcome on arrival. Staff are nurturing and kind. This helps children to feel valued and secure. Staff make sure they get to know the children and their families well from the first day they start. Children have extended time to settle, and staff support each child's individual needs. Children show that they are happy as they explore the setting and become engaged in activities. They investigate how to fasten together the train carriages as they play with the train set. Through trial and error, children manage to connect the carriages together and complete a circuit of the track.

Children learn to play alongside their friends. When they struggle to get along, staff help them to understand how their friends might feel. For example, staff talk to children about having 'kind hands'. Children manage their personal hygiene needs well for their age. They have a good understanding of healthy routines, as they practise washing their own hands. Children are growing in independence as they use forks to pick up fruit during snack time. They have free access to their own water bottles and choose between water and milk at snack time.

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

• Staff plan suitable activities that are exciting and interesting and support children's interests. For example, children dig the sand and plant flowers in the mud. However, staff do not consistently support children to explore the environment and resources in their own way, to extend and enrich their learning.
• Children enjoy healthy snacks and sitting with their friends during snack time. Staff sit with children to model good table manners.
• Leaders share their vision of the setting with all staff. They focus on the community and providing different experiences and opportunities to raise children's awareness of the world around them. For example, they celebrate festivals that are meaningful to them.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language well. For example, while children settle, staff gather familiar words and phrases in children's home language. As a result, children make good progress given their starting points.
• Staff support children's communication and language development well. Children laugh in delight as they sing familiar songs, while cuddling 'Romsey' bear. Staff narrate their play and speak clearly for all children to understand. They introduce new words, such as 'cut, push' and 'pressure', while cutting the wooden fruit.
• Children benefit from many opportunities to develop their physical skills. They use their large muscles as they jump off wooden logs and roll large hoops across the hall. Children develop their coordination and core strength as they climb up the steps of the climbing frame. They gain good control as they balance and move their bodies in different ways.
• Children use numbers spontaneously in their play. They learn early mathematical concepts, such as when they take away monkeys in their favourite counting song.
• Parents talk very positively about the support staff offer them and their children. There is a strong community spirit between parents and staff. Parents are extremely eager to share their comments about the setting, and they particularly compliment the 'family vibe'. They comment on how well their children have settled.
• Staff work well together as a team. The manager values the staff team and provides effective support, ensuring staff have regular opportunities for training. However, the leadership team have not sought further ways to help all staff develop a deep knowledge of teaching and learning that consistently supports children in purposeful play.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to act on opportunities to extend children's learning to the highest levels, while allowing children to use their imagination and explore their own play and learning ideas
• build on the already good practice and seek further ways to help all staff provide high-quality teaching to consistently support the play and learning experiences for children.