The Valley Kindergarten

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The kindergarten is a hive of activity. Children concentrate well on tasks and are curious and eager to learn. They work collaboratively as they come across different challenges. Staff know the children well and have a good understanding of the children's capabilities. The curriculum is ambitious and builds on children's existing knowledge and skills. Staff ensure that children have plenty of opportunity to consolidate their learning and deepen their knowledge.

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, when children were unable to attend, staff made sure they kept in touch with families. Staff delivered stories virtually to the children and shared examples of activities families could do at home.

Children behave well and are kind and considerate towards their peers. Staff actively encourage children to gain an understanding of how their behaviour impacts on others. They encourage children to value everyone's contribution and to listen to one another. Staff know when to stand back and allow children time and space to resolve their own disputes, as well as when to offer guidance.

Children learn about healthy eating and do lots of baking. They help to prepare healthy soups for their lunch by chopping the potatoes and baking their own bread. They carefully use a range of tools and show a good awareness of how to safely hold the potato in relation to the knife when chopping.

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

• The curriculum is well planned. Staff encourage children to follow their interests and test out their ideas. Staff are there to offer support and bring in key skills to the learning experience, as identified in children's individual learning plans.
• Children are independent and have good levels of confidence. They use language well to describe what they are doing and to outline their intentions. Staff engage in lots of dialogue with children. They ask children what is happening and why and what might happen next. The kindergarten manager understands how to effectively support children's developing communication and language. She follows agreed approaches, repeating any unclear words back to children, which enables them to learn the correct pronunciation of words. However, this approach is not always consistently used by all staff.
• Children learn about number and quantity as they make their own dough. They count the number of children and use a 'sharing knife' to portion out the dough so each child gets an equal share.
• During activities, children regularly talk about what they see and observe change. When making dough, they observe the mixture is 'too dry' and suggest adding more water. However, they soon realise all the water is still at the bottom and decide they need to stir it first then check again. They talk about the consistency as it changes from 'dry' to 'sticky' and 'smooth' once it is flattened and rolled.
• Children work together to solve problems and persevere well on self-chosen challenges. Children work collaboratively together to make a 'worm house'. They persist for long periods, carefully resting small planks of wood against one another. They communicate effectively throughout, suggesting 'pull yours back' and 'go forward a little'.
• Staff achieve a good balance between keeping children safe and encouraging them to take measured risks during physical activities. This helps children to grow in confidence and understand their capabilities and safe limits. For example, children challenge themselves to walk on stilts down a small step. They show good balance, steadying themselves before stepping down.
• Overall, leaders and managers have a good measure of the quality of their provision. Staff are supported and actively encouraged to attend regular training. The staff team work well together and regularly meet to discuss the curriculum, what they plan to do next and how this will benefit all children. However, time is not consistently built in to allow managers the opportunity to step back and reflect on the quality of teaching, to build on the existing good practice.
• Staff work effectively in partnership with parents. Staff talk to parents to get a picture of children's existing skills to then build on. Parents report that they get regular feedback on their children's progress and describe how well their children are developing across all areas of learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support all staff to consistently use agreed approaches to remodel children's mispronounced words, to further support children's developing communication and language skills
• improve evaluations of teaching practice so that areas for further improvement are consistently identified to build on the existing good practice.