Roundabout Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at the playgroup. They demonstrate that they feel safe and secure as they engage in interesting activities that ignite their curiosity. Staff care deeply about the children in their care. They regularly take time to chat with children, who are keen to share their news. This helps children develop secure relationships with staff, demonstrating that they feel safe, secure and valued.

Children learn early literacy skills as they develop a love of letters and sounds. Older children learn that text has meaning as they explore the characteristics of letters. For instance, children learn that an 'O' has a round shape. Children begin to link the initial sound to familiar letters within their name. This helps provide children with the skills they will need for future reading and writing.

Children behave well. Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They promote the rules consistently, which provides children with a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Staff respond to changes in children's behaviour with sensitivity and care. For instance, when children become upset, staff sit with them and validate their feelings before finding a solution and returning their attention to activities. This helps provide children with the support they need as they learn to regulate their behaviour.

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

• Staff benefit from effective practice monitoring and supervision arrangements, which focus on their professional development and well-being. This promotes the continuous improvement of the playgroup and is reflective of the steady progress children make. This includes those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language.
• Staff support children's emerging speech and communication development well. They adapt their language effectively to meet the varying needs of children. For instance, staff use simple sign language, objects of reference and picture symbols to support those who are at an earlier stage in their language development. Staff use books to introduce children to new words that connect with actions. For example, while reading a book about growing, children learn that 'sow' describes the act of planting seeds. This helps build children's comprehension of language.
• Staff provide children with opportunities to learn new concepts such as mathematics. Staff incorporate number into each activity. For example, children practise their counting skills as they count the number of children present at the beginning of the day. Children identify numbers within their environment as they begin to explore value. This helps provide children with a secure foundation that will support their future learning.
• Staff provide lots of first-hand opportunities that teach children about the world around them. For instance, children learn about the characteristics of different creatures as they create a bug hotel in the garden. They learn about habitats and recognise the importance of making sure there is water and food for the for creatures they find. Children learn about life cycles as they observe tadpoles and caterpillars transform.
• Children begin to understand how to keep themselves safe through their interactions with staff. For example, staff talk to children about people within the community who can help keep them safe. They discuss the role of the police as children play with fire fighters and police figures in the gloop. Children learn that the police can help them if they are lost or frightened. This helps provide children with the knowledge they need to make safe choices.
• Children have an array of opportunities to develop their physical skills. For instance, children enjoy burning off energy and developing coordination as they ride on toy transport vehicles and dig, climb and run. Children develop their core strength as they practise large arm movements while drawing on chalk boards and transport sand and play bricks in a range of containers. This helps prepare children well for their next stage in learning, including their eventual move to school.
• Overall, partnership with parents and professionals is effective. Parents receive regular communication about the progress children make. Staff provide children with opportunities to extend their learning at home. For instance, children take home the seedlings they grow, so they can share the experience and learning with their parents. The manager liaises with most settings that children also attend, gathering and sharing information. However, contact with some settings is not always initiated as swiftly as possible. This means that not all children benefit from a fully joined-up approach to their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children with a consistent approach to their learning by creating a two-way flow of information with other settings that children also attend.