Scallywags Two Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy to begin their session at nursery. Staff skilfully help children to settle well and enjoy their time. Staff value each individual child and have high expectations for them all. They have clear rules and expectations, which children listen to very well. Children learn to listen carefully to their names and line up ready to go outside to play. They form good friendships with each other and enjoy creating role-play games. For example, they talk about taking their dolls for a walk together and which way they should go.

Children who learn English as an additional language receive good support. Staff make every effort to learn words in children's home languages. This helps children to feel included and settled. Children quickly pick up English through positive play and learning experiences. Staff learn about children's individual backgrounds and heritages effectively; they encourage children to share stories from home with others. For example, children talk about traditional outfits that they wear at special celebrations. Staff use additional funding well to build on children's experiences. For instance, children were fascinated as they had the opportunity to attend an exotic animal session. They stroked the animals and showed positive attitudes towards new learning experiences.

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

• Staff have strong partnerships with parents. They keep parents up to date with their children's development and overall well-being. Parents say that they feel that staff go 'above and beyond' to support their children in all aspects of their care and learning. They comment that staff are approachable, warm and friendly. Parents appreciate the recent opportunity to spend time in the setting with their children.
• The managers and staff team reflect well on the provision that they offer. They use their knowledge of observations of children's development to help to identify what they can improve on. They recently enhanced how they support children's mathematical knowledge. For example, they include counting in more daily activities. Children show that they are confident to count the number of claps they do and show the accurate amount using their fingers.
• Staff receive good support from the managers. They discuss workloads and how to best support children. Children receive very personalised care to meet their individual needs as staff have an accurate understanding of their development. As a result, children make good progress in their development from their individual starting points.
• The leaders have a clear and ambitious curriculum in place. However, they do not monitor precisely enough to ensure that all staff are focusing on the identified priorities. For example, there is currently a strong emphasis on communication and language. Although children are generally achieving well in this area, staff teaching does not always support this as effectively as possible. Children show that they have a knowledge of stories and know that the title can be found on the spine of the book.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive highly effective support to meet their needs. Staff quickly identify where children may need additional support and work with parents to put individual plans in place. Staff seek more advice from the local authority specialist teacher to ensure that they are doing everything they can to help children to make progress.
• Children enjoy spending time outside and busily set about playing. Staff provide a good range of activities, such as sand play, a water tray fishing game, and pencils and paper for mark making. Children particularly like challenging themselves using their small-muscle movements to develop their physical skills. For example, they learn how to squeeze pegs to hang the socks on the washing line. However, at times, the presentation of resources does not inspire older children to explore.
• The managers and staff have good links with staff at local primary schools that children go on to attend. For example, they take children to settling-in sessions with their friends and share development information with teachers. In addition, staff access shared training with local schools in specific areas of learning. This helps them to support children to be ready for their move onto school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop further staff's understanding of the key areas of the curriculum to support them to fully implement these as intended
• review and improve the organisation of the environment to more fully support the needs of the oldest children, so they can continually engage in purposeful play and learning.