Sutton Outdoor Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, safe and secure in the setting. Their excitement is evident in an environment that is stimulating and engaging. Children show motivation, independence and a desire to learn. Staff encourage children to be confident, resilient and inquisitive. Children have secure friendships with adults and their peers. Relationships forged are based on respect and kindness.

Children have an array of vocabulary and discuss various topics throughout the day. They talk about where bees live, what they eat and how to care for them during a beekeeper visit. Children discover new plant names by using technology and information books. They learn all about their own safety. Staff teach children to be aware of risks in their environment. They discuss risks, such as those posed by dogs, strangers and the sun. They also learn about road safety. Children converse amongst their peers about which plants are poisonous and which are not.

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

• Leaders provide effective and up-to-date training for all staff. They encourage staff to follow their own passions. Leaders recognise staff's individual strengths and delegate responsibilities effectively. The team work well together to be reflective and continuously improve their provision. Staff communicate well to ensure their planning provides extended opportunities for all children.
• Staff are knowledgeable about early education and embed this into their everyday practice. They coherently plan to build on what children already know. Children show positive improvement in all areas of learning.
• Children use a range of mathematical concepts throughout the day. They weigh natural resources in pulley string buckets, discuss sizes of leaves and count the number of children each morning.
• Staff have ambitious goals for all children, especially those who speak English as an additional language. Children who speak English as an additional language speak fluently and in full sentences. Staff promote children's language, through everyday discussion, opinion and questions.
• Children understand they are independent learners and can find information out for themselves. For example, children use insect identification flowcharts to establish which minibeast they have found in the stream. They explore the insect answering questions about them and discussing what they see.
• Staff encourage children to use a range of technology to extend their own interests. Children use wildlife cameras to gather information about the forest animals in the area, such as badgers and muntjac deer. They watch videos of a journey down a badger sett and use recording apps to identify bird calls. Children plan out their own adventure walks using detailed park maps.
• Children have an array of opportunities to be physically active. They climb trees, use a trapeze to swing, and balance on slacklines. Children balance along thick fallen trees and use nets to catch minibeasts in the stream. They draw their own family members on to log circles while making their own boats. Children then attach a 'sail' and have boat races in the stream.
• Children are willing to have a go and are confident in engaging in new experiences. They join in with songs and repeated refrains in stories. Children are mostly engaged in their activities. However, at times staff are not always consistent in their behaviour expectations. This means staff do not give children the full support they need to behave well at all times of the day. At times, this negatively impacts the behaviour of other children.
• Parents are happy with the progress their children are making. Staff provide weekly topic memos, which discuss what the children will be learning. They provide parents with discussions and activities they can complete at home. Staff also provide parents with daily observations and pictures of their children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to provide a more consistent approach when managing children's behaviour, to help children to develop skills to regulate their own behaviour and understand the impact their behaviour has on others.