Stepping Stones Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff give children a warm welcome as they arrive at the pre-school. Children happily wave goodbye as they confidently leave their parents and settle quickly. Staff know the children extremely well. They prioritise building strong relationships with them and their families. This helps children to feel safe and develop a sense of belonging.

Staff take account of what interests the children and organise the environment in a way that supports their needs and next steps in development. For example, children enjoy digging in the sand for treasure. Staff hide different objects for them to find, such as gems and coins, which they count together. Furthermore, staff provide children with many opportunities to develop their creativity, such as building structures with different resources, painting and drawing. This helps children to make progress and develop a positive attitude to learning.

Staff create a calm atmosphere, which supports children to be happily engaged and highly focused throughout the day. They demonstrate the positive and respectful behaviour that they expect of children. For instance, staff use positive language, give consistent praise and teach children to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Children behave extremely well and treat each other with kindness. For example, they play with the dolls together and take turns to use the buggy. This approach contributes positively to the way children behave.

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

• Leaders and staff are passionate about their roles. Leaders ensure effective, regular staff supervision sessions are in place and support staff's well-being. Staff have access to targeted training, which supports their professional development.
• Leaders and staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. They make timely referrals and work closely with parents and other professionals. Staff establish targeted plans, so children receive early intervention. Leaders use additional funding that children are entitled to effectively. For example, they have invested in a communication programme to support children's speech and language development. This has a positive impact on helping children to reach their potential.
• Leaders have begun to develop a new curriculum that, overall, is well designed to promote children's progress from their starting points. They understand that they need to embed the new curriculum and provide staff with further support to understand the curriculum's intentions. For instance, although staff plan activities for children that are enjoyable, they are not always finely tuned in line with the curriculum's intentions. This does not consistently support or build on what children already know and can do.
• Leaders and staff support children's communication and language skills effectively. They use singing, action rhymes and stories as part of everyday practice. Staff engage children in meaningful conversations, asking questions to encourage discussion and a deeper level of understanding. For example, children take part in sensory activities, where they learn how to use words to describe what they are seeing, feeling and smelling. This helps children to become confident communicators.
• Staff provide children with opportunities to make choices as part of the daily routine. For instance, children vote to decide which story they want to listen to. They excitedly count how many votes each book has and understand which one has had the most. However, staff do not always fully consider how some parts of the daily routine impact on children's learning. For example, although children relish the responsibility of putting their photo on the snack board to indicate if they would like snack later, the timing of this disrupts some children's concentration and engagement.
• Staff support children's physical development well. For instance, children gain good physical skills as they ride bicycles and climb in the garden. Furthermore, children delight as they take part in yoga sessions. They move their bodies in a variety of ways and are keen to show adults the yoga positions they have learned.
• Staff teach children about being healthy and promote children's independence skills well. For example, staff support children to pour their own drinks and spread butter on their toast at snack time. Furthermore, children grow fruit and vegetables and enjoy trying these healthy foods. Children learn about the importance of good oral health, such as brushing their teeth, which they do after lunch. This supports children's health and well-being.
• Leaders and staff establish positive relationships with parents. They gather detailed information from parents when children first start. This helps staff to identify clear starting points for learning. Staff share information with parents about children's progress and ideas to further their learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• embed the new curriculum, strengthening staff's understanding of the curriculum intent, so that their teaching is more consistently focused on what they want children to learn
• strengthen the daily routine so disruptions to children's play and learning are minimised.