The Bakewell Preschool Playgroup Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy at the pre-school. They take their shoes and coats off and put on their slippers. Children invite staff to join in with their activities and they play cooperatively with their friends. This is evident as children ask staff to play a matching game. Children match animal pictures that are the same and wait patiently for their turn. They help each other to find the matching cards and talk about the animals.

Children have a wonderful attitude to their learning and behave well. They relish role play and thoroughly enjoy dressing up as queens. They put on crowns and say 'It's all shiny' and wear tiny-heeled shoes and tap around the room making clicking noises. Staff extend this play and talk to the children about the Queen's Jubilee. Children discuss the parties they are having at home.

Children run around the garden screaming loudly as they pretend to be Batman and a bumble bee. Older children use the monkey bars and swing safely from one end to the other. They climb up the slide and turn around at the top, knowing to do this slowly before sliding down. Younger children use paintbrushes and swirl the paint around, making big circular marks. These opportunities strengthen children's arms and legs and broaden their physical development.

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

• The manager and staff implement a curriculum that follows children's interests. They promote children's future learning and support language skills well. Children hear lots of words, which helps them to widen their vocabulary. Staff engage children in lively conversations, such as having a discussion about Egyptian pyramids and mummies. They also use basic sign language to help children communicate further. As a result, children are developing good speaking skills.
• Staff promote children's literacy skills overall. They provide opportunities for older children to recognise and write their own names. They plan activities to help children learn about letters and sounds. However, some staff do not model the correct pronunciation of the sounds that letters represent. This means staff are not developing older children's early phonic skills.
• Staff support children to develop an awareness of numbers. They model simple counting and ask children how many flowers are in the plant pot. However, staff do not always use other mathematical language, such as full and empty or big and small, as children fill and empty syringes in their water play, for example. Neither do they compare the sizes of the buckets as children play in the sand. Therefore, staff are not fully broadening children's knowledge of capacity or measurement.
• Staff pay particular attention to supporting children's behaviour and personal care skills. They continually offer praise, encouragement and reassurance as children play. They celebrate children's efforts and encourage children to try and complete tasks for themselves to increase their independence. For example, children know to wash their hands before eating, they pour their own drinks at snack time and older children open their own lunch boxes.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff find out about children's interests and prior learning, and use this for planning activities. Staff take time to build strong and trusting relationships. Parents comment on how happy their children are attending the pre-school. They particularly like the parents' online programme, which provides them with information about activities and gives them suggestions to support children's learning at home.
• Staff talk to parents about the experiences children have at home. From this, staff know some children do not go into the local community. Therefore, they plan trips to visit the local shopkeepers and ask the firefighters to visit the pre-school, so children can learn about people who help us.
• The dedicated manager has an accurate evaluation of the pre-school and has identified purposeful actions to help drive improvement. For example, she has started to adapt the back of the garden space, which is in the shade, so that children can play outside more on sunny days. Staff are supported by regular professional discussions, when they discuss children's learning needs and ideas. They have frequent opportunities to access training, for example developing their understanding of children's behaviour to help all children, including those with special education needs and/or disabilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's knowledge of how to model the correct pronunciation of the sounds that letters represent in order to develop children's early phonic and literacy skills further
• review staff practice to help to improve the implementation of the mathematics curriculum to enhance older children's knowledge of capacity and measurement.