Sunshine Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a caring and nurturing pre-school, where every child is treated as an individual. Children have the freedom to make their own choices about which activities they enjoy and choose to engage with. For example, they are able to decide when they want to play outdoors and indoors and this motivates them to learn.

Children show they are happy and feel safe. They smile when they arrive and settle quickly to the activities on offer. They chat to each other and excitedly run to each new activity set out. Children are eager to try out new things and develop positive attitudes to learning. They love exploring and investigating outdoors. They use the woodland area for going on bug hunts, and use the garden for improving their physical skills, using obstacle courses and climbing equipment.

Staff provide a curriculum that excites children's interest and builds on what they already know. Younger children enjoy activities to improve their fine motor skills. For example, they use play dough to make pretend food, hang up dolls' clothes with small pegs and create pictures using a range of materials. Older children are challenged to use their critical thinking and solve clues. They sort bugs using simple classification and learn early mathematical concepts, such as counting pirate coins buried in sand. Children are developing good skills to support them in moving on to their next steps in learning.

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

• Leaders carefully plan and provide a curriculum with staff. The staff use assessment effectively to identify and address any gaps in children's learning. They are skilful at knowing how to use children's interests to support them in learning a range of skills. The clear, shared intent from leaders allows staff to focus learning on what they want children to learn next.
• Staff meet the needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively. They know their needs well and are able to adapt and differentiate learning so that they are fully included. Staff work well with other agencies involved. They actively seek further training to ensure they can provide the best care and outcomes for all children.
• Overall, staff promote children's language and communication skills well. Children join in loudly and confidently, jumping with excitement, when singing familiar nursery rhymes. Staff pose questions well to older children that extend their thinking skills. However, some staff are not fully confident in knowing how to interact effectively to build on and extend children's language. This does not fully support children to make consistently good progress.
• Staff provide lots of opportunities for children to listen to stories. However, they do not always consider the best environment or time for this, and children can become distracted by other activities on offer. This means they leave before the story is finished and do not benefit fully from all the learning.
• Children are given many opportunities to learn about positive behaviours and being kind to others. Staff model language such as 'kind' and 'careful' when hunting for spiders outside. Children are quick to say 'sorry' if they bump into their friends. Children visit older people in a neighbouring building, where they share craft activities and stories and sing songs with the residents. This demonstrates the high level of respect and consideration that children are learning about the world around them.
• An effective key-person system promotes all children's well-being and independence. Children show a particular bond and fondness for their key person, regularly seeking them out to play with. Careful consideration is given to settling new children. Staff stay close to them and make every effort to give them a calm and positive early experience. Funding is spent on resources to support emotional regulation and training to develop the well-being of all children.
• The provider is passionate about supporting each and every child and their family. She constantly strives to create the best possible environment for children to learn and grow in. Parents speak highly of the progress their children make and the great communication they receive from staff. A parent stated, 'The staff truly put the children first and work around their needs.'

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance staff's knowledge of how to maximise their interactions with children, to promote language and communication more effectively
• review the implementation of story times to ensure that distractions are minimised and children fully engage in their learning.