St Cuthberts Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and confident learners who seek adults when needed but are also happy to play independently for sustained periods. Children have well-planned resources, with picture cards to help them to understand what they are going to learn and to choose a new activity. Staff speak clearly and simply, reinforcing such concepts as 'your turn' and 'my turn' without cluttering or confusing the messages. As children play and explore, staff introduce new vocabulary. For example, as children use bricks to build a tower, staff talk about whether the tower is 'bigger' or 'smaller' than the children. Children listen to stories and engage in action songs. This helps them to build confidence and to understand new words. Children learn about concepts, such as 'floating' and 'sinking'. They watch in fascination as they discover which object will sink to the bottom or float to the top. Children behave well. Staff are good role models for them. They show children how to be kind and to respect others. They help children to take turns and share. Children are supported to learn about keeping themselves safe. For example, when they get up from the snack table with food, staff remind them about the importance of sitting down when eating.

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

• Since the last inspection, there have been significant changes within the playgroup. The new manager has wasted no time in identifying what the playgroup does well and what it needs to do to improve. She has made changes to how staff assess what children can do and how this information is used to plan the next steps in their learning. This is beginning to have a positive impact on the progress that children make.
• Promoting children's communication skills is at the core of the playgroup's curriculum. The recent interventions, such as small group time and 'Talking with Twos', are enabling children to make strong progress in this area. Parents report how they have seen significant improvements in their children's confidence and speech.
• During the period when the playgroup was closed due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) restrictions, the staff provided parents with remote learning for children. For example, how to make play dough and sharing ideas for activities that children could complete at home. Since reopening, after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, staff have focused on children's social and emotional development. This is because they found that children needed extra help at this time in managing their feelings and in learning to work and play with others.
• Children are happy, safe and well cared for. Staff know the children well and, consequently, learning is effectively tailored to their needs. However, the pace at which staff give information during adult-led activities is, occasionally, too fast. This does not always give children time to consider, develop and express their own emerging ideas.
• Children develop good listening skills and confidently talk together and with staff. They enjoy listening to stories and rhymes and show a good recall of the key facts. For example, children are able to recount enthusiastically and accurately the story of 'The Three Bears'. They delight in demonstrating how Goldilocks falls when she breaks baby bear's chair.
• Children achieve well in their physical development. They show confidence in peddling tricycles in the outdoor area and all thoroughly enjoy their early morning 'music and movement' session. Staff work together to promote children's understanding of routines and expectations. As a result, children behave well. They follow instructions, take turns and share equipment with one another.
• Staff have a good understanding of how to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children who speak English as an additional language also make good progress. Initially, this is often in developing listening skills, before becoming confident as talkers.
• Staff are extremely warm, kind and patient in their interactions with children. They gather important information about children's daily routines and care needs before they start. However, they do not always ask parents to provide details about what children already know and can do, to establish children's starting points quickly and precisely.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• give children more opportunity to think about and consolidate the information given by staff during some activities, taking account of their need to think about and share their responses and ideas
• extend the level of initial information obtained from parents to include further details of children's development, to plan more precisely for their continued progress from the outset.