Three Bears Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are welcomed warmly by staff on arrival and settle in happily. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour and help them to develop positive attitudes and social skills. Children listen well, share, and older children kindly support younger children when they need help. Staff celebrate children's achievements to encourage their confidence and self-esteem. For example, children proudly ring a bell and tell the group what they have achieved. Staff provide a structured routine to help children understand the changing activities throughout the day.

Children benefit from a well-balanced curriculum designed to help to them make good progress according to their individual needs. This includes focused adult-led activities as well as time for children to choose and lead their own play, such as creating models and exploring sensory resources. Staff provide new experiences to enrich children's learning, such as exploring Chinese New Year to learn about different cultures and beliefs. Children enjoy lots of outdoor play and active games to help support their physical development.

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

• Staff know the children well and are clear what they intend them to learn next. They provide exciting activities and use good teaching skills to help children learn more. For example, they help children to learn how to use scissors and tools effectively to develop their small-muscle coordination. However, staff offer less opportunities to help children to learn more about mathematics, such as when they find shape challenges easy.
• Children join in the activities with interest and engage well. They share lots of laughter together while playing. However, when staff take younger children away from their play for nappy changes in groups, some are kept waiting for periods with nothing to do. This disrupts their play and exploration.
• Staff respect children's interests and ideas, which they use to create spontaneous learning opportunities. For example, they organise races to build on children's enjoyment of running games in the garden. Children join in enthusiastically, making more suggestions and choosing partners to compete with. This helps children to develop good physical and social skills.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on supporting children to be independent from a young age. For example, children learn to put on their coats, pour their drinks and wash their hands. This helps to build their confidence in readiness for school.
• Staff help children to develop healthy lifestyles. Children practise good personal hygiene routines and learn to rest and have a drink after being active. Staff sit and eat with children to encourage healthy eating and enjoyable mealtimes.
• Children learn how to keep themselves safe, such as when using craft tools and playing on the physical apparatus outside.
• Staff support children's communication and language development well. They ask questions to encourage children to think and talk. Children learn new words regularly to help build their vocabulary. For example, children learn the pronunciation and meaning of a zodiac, pagoda and chopsticks through exploring Chinese New Year.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff keep parents informed well of their children's daily activities, well-being and development. Parents share positive views of the provision. Staff work effectively with parents and external professionals to meet the additional needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• The management team follows secure recruitment procedures and an induction process to help ensure staff working with children are suitable. They provide coaching and training to ensure staff meet children's needs effectively. The management team use any additional funding for children in order to have the most impact on their learning.
• Staff have a good understanding of their safeguarding roles and responsibilities and the risks to children. They know the correct procedures to follow in the event of any concerns about a child or adult.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop more opportunities to enhance for children's mathematical development even further
• develop the organisation of nappy-changing procedures to ensure children are not kept waiting unnecessarily and their play disrupted.