Seashells Early Years Centre Ltd - Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed into the pre-school by staff, who help them to feel happy and safe. Children develop good relationships with staff and their friends. They speak confidently to visitors, as they show them around, talking about favourite toys and where they play. Children develop good levels of self-esteem and behave well. They learn how to share, as they take turns with favourite toys. They manage this well. For instance, as children chose to play with the same scooter, they use the sand timer to make sure their friends have equal time playing. Children say please and thank you as they share the scooter. They recognise and respond to the differing needs of their friends with kindness and consideration.

Children benefit from a varied curriculum that motivates them to play and learn. They become absorbed in activities which encourage them to explore and to experiment with ideas, which support their good knowledge and skills. For example, as older children play with water, they work out how to move small world animals down pipes. They listen to staff explain how to squeeze pipettes and copy their instructions. Children experiment with how much water is needed to move the turtle and the whale, sharing their ideas with staff confidently.

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

• The manager is qualified and dedicated in her role. She leads a team of well-qualified and equally dedicated staff, who put the children at the heart of their practice. They have a common desire to help all children to have the best start in their education and offer good levels of care. Staff work well together. They say that they feel valued and respected by the manager and enjoy their roles. The manager uses her regular supervisions with staff to provide guidance and support. She recognises that there is more that can be done to focus training and enable staff to further their practice skills and to enhance the delivery of the curriculum.
• Staff promote children's physical skills well. They recognise the individual needs of children and adapt the environment to help them to take risks safely, as they play. When activities are more challenging, staff help children to keep on trying, to successfully achieve new skills. For instance, children confidently climb and manoeuvre their bodies as they move around the geodome. They learn how to throw and catch balls with staff, gaining good hand-to-eye coordination skills. These skills help children to gain control of their large and small muscle movements and develop their good physical coordination skills.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Regular exchanges of information between staff, parents and carers support children in settling. Parents speak positively about the setting, saying that they feel staff are kind and caring. Children say that 'Seashells is fun'. However, staff are yet to use established partnerships with parents and other sources, to help them gain a full range of information about children's speaking and listening skills, when they first start. This slightly hinders how staff can plan and precisely tailor the curriculum for some children, from the outset.
• Staff teaching is good. Opportunities for children to learn about mathematics are supported well by staff. During activities children learn how to count, to recognise shapes and to use mathematics purposefully in their play. For instance, as children play hide and seek, they count as their friends hide. Staff model numbers to help some children to count in order. As children draw houses, staff help children think about and names of the shapes, such as 'the square windows'.
• Children behave well and are kind, caring and respectful of their peers. Staff are good role models. They teach children about using good manners as they share toys and resources. Children learn that they are all unique and that some friends' needs are different from their own, and how to value and respect these. For instance, as children take part in music and movement, they choose favourite rhymes and learn that they all like different songs. They join in with actions and movements of the nursery rhymes their friends chose, as they wait for theirs to be sung.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• gather more information from parents, carers and other sources, particularly in relation to communication and language skills, to further enhance the planning for children's learning needs, from the outset
• focus professional development more precisely on gaining skills and knowledge that can be used to enhance the support for individual children's learning, based on their particular needs.