Sunshine Pre-school Exmouth Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children and their families to the pre-school. Children arrive happily and quickly settle down to play with their friends. They take part in a variety of learning experiences as part of an ambitious curriculum. Staff provide regular opportunities for children to learn outside, including visits to the local area, such as the nearby allotments. Children learn how to grow fruit and vegetables and delight in eating the produce. Staff support children to make good links to previous learning as they play. For example, children closely examine toy minibeasts with staff and discuss the different animals they find in the outdoor area at other times of the year, such as grasshoppers and dragonflies. Children communicate their ideas confidently to staff and each other. They focus well for extended periods on their chosen activities.

Leaders ensure staff have shared expectations of what children can do for themselves. This supports children to become increasingly confident in managing their personal needs as they get older. For instance, after they eat their snack, children confidently find and look in mirrors to check they have cleaned their faces properly. Staff warmly praise children for their efforts, and children smile with pride. Relationships between children and staff are trusting and responsive, and they enjoy spending time in each other's company.

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

• Children learn how to keep themselves healthy. Children are particularly keen to take part in physical activities, such as learning to jump and balance in the soft-play area. Staff support them to understand the effect physical activity has on their bodies, including thinking about how it makes them feel hot. Staff care about children's mental health and support children to learn how to regulate their emotions and behaviour. Children respond well to the techniques provided by staff, such as using the breathing exercises they learn as part of yoga sessions to help them stay calm.
• Staff provide frequent opportunities for children to develop their small-muscle skills. Children benefit from exploring how to use a variety of different mark-making equipment and other tools, such as when they are playing with play dough. They provide clear instructions for children on how to make movements that support them to strengthen their muscles and use their hands more effectively. For example, they encourage the children to follow the instruction 'pinch, pinch, pull' as they learn to open food packets by themselves.
• Staff support all children's learning effectively and quickly recognise when children might need additional support. They work closely with the other settings children attend to create targeted support plans, which ensures a consistent approach. They make timely referrals to other agencies to help children receive support from other professionals linked to their specific needs, including the local speech and language team.
• Leaders carefully monitor children's progress across the curriculum. They identify areas of practice to improve. For example, they recognise that children do not always make the expected progress in mathematics and put in place group activities to support this. However, staff do not always consolidate and extend children's mathematical knowledge and skills in their free play to further support their understanding.
• Children are keen to learn. They listen carefully to staff and happily sit ready to take part in group learning times. However, at times, staff do not plan and implement adult-led sessions effectively. Younger children do not always engage in activities as they are too difficult for them and do not build on their next steps of learning.
• Staff work very well in partnership with parents. They build good relationships with children and their families from the start. They work closely alongside parents to monitor children's development and regularly update them on their child's progress. They provide regular workshops for parents on how to support their children's learning and development at home. For example, they have recently offered sessions on supporting oral hygiene and the importance of sleep for children's development. Parents praise the home-from-home environment and the 'sense of warmth' provided by staff towards their children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help children to consolidate their mathematical knowledge, particularly during free play to support their understanding further
• plan and implement adult-led activities more effectively for younger children to support their next steps in learning.