Sutton-on-Sea Sandcastles Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted warmly by staff on their arrival to the pre-school. Those that are new are offered support and encouragement to help them settle. Staff support children to be independent. Younger children learn how to fill buckets with water, receiving support from staff to understand when to turn a tap off when their bucket is full. Older children take responsibility for handing out plates to their friends at snack time.

The provider and staff have a clear curriculum that focuses on children's communication and language skills. When staff read familiar books, children begin to recite part of the stories from memory. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported to understand changes in the daily routine. This includes staff showing children objects, such as nappies, before changing them. Additionally, children observe staff using Makaton sign language alongside the words they use, supporting their understanding of what is being communicated.

Children build positive relationships with staff and each other. Staff interact with children as they play, helping them to understand behavioural expectations. Children share the toys and resources they use and play cooperatively with their peers. For instance, children copy staff when they show them how to say a friend's name and roll a ball to them. This contributes to developing children's social skills.

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

• Staff work closely in partnership with other professionals to meet children's individual needs. This includes discussing how to support children's individual targets to help them progress. For example, staff encourage children to communicate in a variety of different ways, such as giving them choices to enable them to make decisions.
• Staff gather detailed information from parents when children first start and use this, along with their knowledge of child development, to plan activities to support children's good progress. This includes providing activities for younger children to develop the muscles in their mouths that helps them to form speech sounds.
• Children's understanding of feelings and emotions is supported well by staff. For instance, staff read stories to children, helping them to identify how characters in books are feeling. They ask children to look in mirrors and identify how they are feeling and why. Children confidently talk about why they feel sad and happy.
• The provider supports staff to build on their professional development. Staff attended training courses to develop their knowledge of how to support children to settle and feel secure when they first start. This includes finding out from parents how to comfort their children if they become upset and using these strategies to help children settle.
• Staff provide a wide range of activities that children are keen to engage in. However, sometimes, not all staff are supported to fully understand the intent of some activities and how they can use their teaching skills to build on what children need to learn next. For example, when an activity is to support children to build on their scissors skills, staff to not demonstrate to children how to do this.
• Overall, staff are good role models and help children to understand how to be respectful and to show positive behaviours when they interact with others. Staff hold conversations with children, listen and respond appropriately, showing children that their views are valued. Staff help children to understand how to share, using words such as 'your turn', when children use a swing in the garden.
• Staff plan activities during the day that focuses on particular aspects of learning, such as for older children to recognise their written name. This is to help them identify their own belongings that show their name, when they move on to school. However, sometimes, during planned activities, staff do not consider how to meet the learning needs of the younger children as effectively.
• The provider invites teachers from the schools children will attend, to see and interact with the children prior to them moving on to school. This is to help children to become familiar with the adult who will be caring for them in an environment where they feel safe and secure. This contributes to preparing children to be emotionally ready for their move on.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's teaching to focus on how to support children's individual learning
• support staff during planned activities to take account of the learning needs of the younger children more precisely.