Scamps Pre-School Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending this welcoming and nurturing setting. They develop strong attachments with staff, who are responsive to their needs. Children behave well and demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. They love to share their experiences with staff. For example, at snacktime, they talk about growing fruits in their gardens at home. Staff respond enthusiastically to children's spontaneous conversations. Children's curiosity is sparked by the well-planned learning environment. For example, they engage well when handling a variety of natural objects they had previously collected with their parents. This contributes to their sense of belonging and self-confidence.

Children develop a love for books. They sit comfortably with staff to share both stories and information books with interest. They talk about the pictures and make links with their previous experiences. Children begin to acquire and use new words they hear, such as 'conkers'. They make 'leaf people' after listening to an autumn story, and use interesting objects, such as pine cones, for arms. In this way children's imagination and creativity are successfully increased.

Children play outdoors every day. They are physically active and thoroughly enjoy being in the fresh air. Children skilfully ride tricycles, collect water from a water butt and dance to music. This helps to further enhance children's physical and emotional development.

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

• Leaders show a strong commitment to meeting children's individual needs. This has been strengthened through partnerships with other local nurseries and schools, to consider the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's learning. To enable good progress, the highlighted areas of children's communication and language skills, emotional development and physical development are successfully addressed.
• The manager is a knowledgeable and passionate practitioner. She leads a dedicated staff team, who share her vision for continual improvement. Staff have opportunities to reflect on their practice, celebrate their successes and suggest any further improvements. For instance, they suggest other ways to complement the existing level of engagement with parents, to keep them all informed and involved. Staff comment that they feel supported and valued by leaders.
• Children are excited by learning and show sustained concentration, when engaged in activities that interest them. For instance, children explore natural items and are supported by staff to correctly count conkers and find the matching numeral. These skills help to prepare children for their next stage of education.
• Leaders and staff regularly assess children's ongoing development. They use this information to identify any emerging or persistent gaps in their learning. Leaders have a close relationship with the local authority and other external professionals, and access them for advice. Staff are skilful in working with children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. For example, children who have speech delay are supported well to use 'Makaton' sign language to aid their communication. This demonstrates the management team and staff's dedication to provide high-quality, inclusive care and education.
• Staff know children well and show kindness and care in their approach when interacting with them. However, on occasions, they are too quick to help children solve their problems, rather than step back and allow them time to think for themselves. For example, children engage in a water activity and pour water on toy ducks to make them move along the guttering. Staff notice the ducks and water are static when children pour water on a levelled piece of guttering. Staff comment on this and quickly re-position the guttering to a diagonal position.
• Parents are very positive about the setting. They comment on the good progress their children make, particularly in developing confidence, independence and speech. They appreciate being involved in their children's development, such as, learning a new 'Makaton' sign every week to aid children's comprehension skills.
• Children learn about adopting healthy lifestyles. They learn about the features of the mouth by using torches and the correct way to clean teeth by practising on a teeth model. They are increasing in confidence when managing their self-care skills, such as when they wash their hands after using the toilet. This supports children's well-being and good health.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve further the quality of staff's interactions with children, to help them recognise when to intervene and when to allow children more time to test out their ideas to solve their problems independently.