Squirrels Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, safe and well cared for. They benefit from the staff's focus on supporting their personal, social and emotional well-being. Children develop strong, trusting relationships with staff and their friends. Staff teach children the importance of kindness and respect, modelling this with children and embedding consistent behaviour expectations. Consequently, children learn to take turns, to use good manners and behave well. For instance, as children tidy away toys, they ask their friends for help and say 'thank you' as they work together to put toys onto the shelves.

Staff have high expectations for children's learning. The curriculum is created to focus on priorities for children's learning. Leaders have a good understanding of what they want children to know or to be able to do next. Children benefit from activities which excite and engage them in learning. For instance, children relish opportunities to make 'potions'. They learn how to tip and pour coloured liquids and add stars, glitter and label their mixtures. Staff support children's hand-eye coordination and encourage them to count and measure mixtures. Children listen intently and become absorbed in activities as staff skilfully weave learning into these experiences. All children, including those in receipt of additional funding, make good progress from their starting points.

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

• Leaders and the staff team are passionate about providing children with the best start to their early education. They work well together, and their shared vision of continuous improvement enables children to benefit from a wide range of learning experiences. For instance, staff have reflected and improved how they celebrate the important events in children's lives. They help children learn about their own cultures and those of their friends, throughout the year. This helps to build children's awareness of other people and communities to prepare them for life in modern Britain
• Staff teach children the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. Children enjoy plentiful opportunities to be physically active. For instance, they push themselves along on ride-on bicycles and practise using hula hoops, developing their good coordination skills. Staff encourage children to take age-appropriate risks as they play. For example, children think about how they can cross low-level planks between the tepees as staff encourage and praise them. Children develop a positive attitude to trying new activities and gain confidence in their growing abilities.
• Leaders support their staff well. Staff say that they enjoy working at the pre-school and feel well supported. They have regular supervision sessions and meetings to discuss their well-being and to develop staff knowledge and skills.
• However, although staff benefit from a broad range of training opportunities, leaders do not focus staff professional development to refine and enhance staff's good teaching skills.
• Children benefit from good opportunities to develop their mathematical knowledge. Staff focus on this area of learning well. For instance, children learn how many pieces of fruit they can choose at snack time. Staff provide written numbers and encourage children to count out the pieces. Opportunities for children to learn about numbers, shapes, size and weight are a constant theme in their learning experiences. Children learn how to be confident in using mathematics purposefully in their play.
• Staff work well with parents and other professionals involved in children's care. They share a range of information regularly, to reflect children's interests and unique needs. This helps to ensure that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, benefit from a shared and consistent approach to their care and development. Staff devise targeted plans of support for each child. This ensures that all children who need extra help receive the support they need.
• Overall, children's communication and language skills are supported well. Staff use opportunities to introduce new language to build on children's growing vocabulary skills. For instance, staff teach younger children the names of colours as they teach them about the red and yellow hoops. Children listen well and gain good attention skills. However, where some children need additional help to communicate their wants, needs and wishes, staff are yet to embed techniques to consistently support this area of their communication.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• target staff professional development opportunities in order to help to refine and enhance teaching skills more precisely
• develop the use of techniques that encourage and support children to communicate their wants, needs and ideas more consistently.