The Railway Children Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show positive relationships with their peers and staff. They wave at their friends through a window when they see them arrive. Children are happy to involve staff in their play and demonstrate good imaginative skills. For example, children pretend to work in a shop and ask staff to pay for items they want to buy. Children play cooperatively with others and learn to share. Children take it in turns to place foam blocks one on top of the other to construct a tower. They laugh together when it falls to the floor.

Children demonstrate that they feel safe as they confidently and independently explore the resources offered. Children show good hand-to-eye coordination. They enthusiastically use spades to scoop up sand to fill buckets. When children tip out the sand, they tell staff that they are making a 'city'. Staff talk to children about other buildings that might be in cities, helping to develop their knowledge further. Children develop their physical abilities. They show good balance and coordination when they ride on tricycles and carefully manoeuvre them around obstacles. Children take calculated risks in their play. For instance, they balance wooden planks one on top of the other and carefully climb up and balance on top of them.

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

• Staff use their good knowledge of children to help provide opportunities to enhance the experiences children receive at home. For example, children borrow books for parents to read to them. This encourages children to develop a love of stories.
• Staff praise children for showing positive behaviour and help them to understand what is expected of them. For example, they say 'good job' when children take it in turns to stack blocks. Staff encourage children to clap their hands to praise themselves when they sing nursery rhymes.
• The special educational needs coordinator supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) very well. She attends relevant training courses that help to increase her confidence and knowledge of how to support children with SEND. She works closely with parents and other professionals to plan targets to support children's individual needs. The special educational needs coordinator understands that it is important for children to follow consistent routines. This also helps all staff to manage children's behaviour effectively.
• Staff observe and assess children's learning. They use the curriculum to extend children's knowledge, for example, to develop their thinking skills. Staff ask children a good range of questions and give them time to respond. This allows children to think and process information before they answer.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to learn sounds that represent letters of the alphabet. Children repeat the sounds that staff say and some children recognise words that begin with the same sound.
• The manager and staff develop good partnerships with parents. They provide parents with pictures of their children playing and a termly report that shows children's progress. Parents provide positive comments about staff. They say that children 'have a close relationship with staff' and that they provide a 'good range of activities' for children.
• Staff support children to develop their mathematical skills. For instance, when they play alongside children in the sandpit, they use language such as 'big bucket' and 'big sandcastle'. When children stand at the side of a tower of foam blocks, staff ask children if they are 'taller'. Children begin to understand words that describe size.
• The manager and staff support children to be emotionally ready for their move on to school. They invite teachers to meet children in the playgroup. Children have opportunities to interact with and get to know their new teacher.
• Occasionally, during children's play, some staff do not talk to children about what they are doing. For example, when children use containers to scoop and pour water, staff do not introduce language to support children's understanding of what is happening.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's ability to recognise when to introduce language to support children's understanding consistently.