Stepping Stones At Elberton

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive with great enthusiasm. They are settled, happy and very confident. They thrive at the pre-school, are highly motivated to learn and make impressive progress from their individual starting points. All children have excellent relationships with the staff, who show genuine warmth and kindness to them. Staff are excellent role models and support children to develop confident social skills, independence and impeccable behaviour. The children play exceptionally well together and form strong friendships. They share and take turns. Older children make use of sand timers to encourage their younger friends to share resources.

Children are fully prepared to move on to school. They persevere at activities and thrive on the challenges staff set. Staff instinctively challenge children to develop their language and thinking. They skilfully introduce new words and ask pertinent questions to promote conversations. They use visual prompts and provide sensitive support to help children who find verbal communication more difficult. They also use puppets to model language and conversation. Children chat avidly about the things they observe and what they are doing and to share their ideas. Staff make excellent use of books, songs and rhymes to promote children's language and literacy skills.

Full of smiles, children move freely between the carefully planned, inspiring indoor and outdoor learning environments. Children relish outdoor play. They use their design ideas to create large-scale structures with different-shaped construction resources. They make low walls and traverse across them, demonstrating their balancing skills. Children create 'meals' in the mud kitchen and refer to recipe books. They have great fun with water play. They investigate the movement of water as they race to fill funnels, watch the flow of water through winding transparent pipes and gauge when to catch it in containers.

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

• The staff are all highly enthusiastic in their roles. They work with a passion to ensure that every child has the very best learning experiences. Staff have an in-depth understanding of children's needs, interests and abilities and an excellent overview of where every child is in their learning. The exciting curriculum takes full account of what each child needs to learn next. Staff instinctively offer the encouragement and support the children need to foster their all-round learning. They seek outside professional support without delay to ensure that children receive the extra help they need to maximise their learning. Staff instinctively know when to be actively involved in children's play to extend their learning, and when to stand back and let them play freely.
• Staff use every opportunity to foster children's self-esteem. Children receive high praise for their achievements, and staff show genuine pride and excitement when children achieve. For example, children beam with delight as staff give them a 'high five' for counting the blocks in their tower and recognising numerals.
• Staff actively develop children's mathematical awareness. They encourage children to count, do simple calculations and solve problems in fun ways. For example, staff stand at the bottom of the slide and pose questions such as 'how many fingers?' and 'what comes next?' after a given number. The children excitedly take turns to slide down and give the correct answer before rushing round to repeat the game. Children learn to estimate how far toy cars might travel and compare the size and shape of objects. They name 3D shapes confidently. Staff challenge the most able children. For example, children find and combine numerals to form higher numbers, such as 10 and above.
• Management provide excellent staff support. They work highly successfully with staff to evaluate the effectiveness of the provision and to drive continuous improvement. Funding is used highly effectively to provide extra staff support and resources to enhance children's learning. For example, they provide opportunities for all children to participate in woodland learning experiences. This proves to be highly beneficial for children who previously preferred to play only indoors. Children learn to keep themselves safe while exploring the natural environment. Under the vigilant supervision of staff, children climb trees, mix 'potions', carry and build with logs, pull themselves up a mound using a rope, relax in the hammock, look for bugs and create fairy gardens. Such experiences enhance children's understanding of the world, imagination and physical agility.
• Parents describe the staff as 'fantastic, friendly and highly supportive'. They state that the provision exceeds their expectations and that their children thoroughly enjoy attending. Children look forward to taking 'Crumble Bear' home to share their family adventures and add to his log book. Parents feel extremely well informed about their children's experiences and attribute their children's significant progress to the support the children receive from staff.