Spilsby Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children happily enter the setting, eager to join their friends. Staff welcome them with a cuddle, which helps the children to feel safe and secure. Children quickly become engaged in a range of activities provided. For example, developing their fine motor skills as they explore 'goblin's gloop'. The children enjoy moving the thick mixture around a tray with their fingers, strengthening the muscles they will later use for writing. Staff play alongside children, which helps to maintain their engagement in learning. They ask questions to extend children's thinking and model how to make marks in the gloop.

Children show that they are learning to take responsibility and look after their play environment. They willingly share toys with their friends and tidy away when they have finished their activities. Children behave well and know what is expected from them. For example, they notify a member of staff when paint is spilt on the floor, helping to keep the environment safe.

Children show pride in what they do. They carefully put their completed drawings in their bags to take home and smile as staff praise them for their achievement. This boosts children's self-esteem and confidence in their learning.

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

• Leaders and managers make sure that all children progress well in their learning and development. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff adapt their practice to help children with SEND participate in the activities on offer and the routines of the day. For example, they use picture cards to show children what is happening now and what will be happening next. This helps children with SEND to understand what is happening in their day.
• Leaders and managers have constructed a broad curriculum that allows children to develop the knowledge and skills they need to get ready for school. They support staff to provide varied and exciting activities, through which staff support children's age-appropriate learning and development. However, occasionally staff do not consider children's individual rates of development and next steps in learning when planning activities. This means that, sometimes, children participate in learning that they are already confident in, rather than being supported to build on what they already know and can do.
• Leaders and managers provide staff with appropriate training opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills. For example, staff have recently completed training to help them evaluate their practice, with a particular focus on making sure they are inclusive of all children's needs. This helps staff to continually develop in their roles and build their expertise.
• Staff support children to become independent. They allow children to self-select and play with resources of their choice. This helps children to make decisions and form their own interests.
• Staff help children to develop skills such as responsibility and respect. Children show that they know how to use resources safely and for their intended purpose. Staff encourage children to take care of the resources that they use. They praise children when they tidy away after their play, which motivates children to continue behaving in this way.
• Staff use effective strategies to help children settle when they first start attending the setting. They recognise that every child is unique and has different emotional needs. Staff tailor the settling-in procedure for individual children, allowing new children to visit as often as they like as they extend their time at the setting and get to know their key person. Parents say that staff work hard to get to know them and their children and are grateful for the support on offer for the whole family.
• Staff plan activities to introduce children to new first-hand experiences. For instance, they arrange for the local fire service to visit the setting and teach children about their role in keeping the community safe. This helps children to develop an understanding of the world in which they live.
• Staff are focused on promoting children's communication and language development and use effective techniques to support this. For example, they clearly and slowly repeat back what children have said so that children can hear how to pronounce words correctly. This supports children's speech development so that they can communicate effectively with others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consider and promote children's individual rates of development and next steps in learning when planning activities.