Tinkerbells Early Years

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely enthusiastic to start their day. They eagerly wait to come in, while planning with their friends what they are going to do. They greet staff with excitement for their day ahead. Children, staff, parents, and carers have developed fantastic relationships that help children to feel exceptionally safe and secure. Children thoroughly enjoy exploring all areas of the spacious and incredibly well-planned environment. Children are instantly engaged as soon as they arrive and get straight to play.

Children are provided with an outstanding range of stimulating and exciting activities that captivate their interests, supporting them to become extremely motivated learners. For instance, children show an interest in building and construction. To develop this further, staff provide large cardboard boxes, which ignite children's creativity. Children engage in sustained role play, using their extensive range of language. For example, they make a 'jail' with 'underground tunnels'. Furthermore, children are incredibly kind and caring. When children approach established games, they are made to feel welcome. Children listen to each other's ideas and adapt their play as necessary.

Children take part in a rich set of experiences as part of an exciting and inspiring curriculum. This is based on children's communication and language, as well as their personal, social, and emotional development. This is fully embedded across the curriculum intent and all areas of learning. For example, as children use their developing physical skills to create assault courses, staff use skilful questioning to encourage them to share their thinking out loud.

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

• Leaders are clear on what they want children to achieve. The knowledgeable staff ensure that the curriculum is implemented successfully and considers the emerging needs of each child. For example, key people know their children incredibly well. They set precise next steps to enhance children's knowledge from their starting points. All children are making excellent progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children demonstrate consistently positive attitudes to their play. They are highly motivated to join in with the vast range of activities on offer. For example, as children make fruit kebabs, they speak about their knowledge of fruits, healthy eating, and how to safely hold and use knives. Staff are on hand, but children show incredible independence.
• Leaders are highly proactive in maintaining and enhancing staff's knowledge and skills. They meet regularly with staff to identify training needs, which are precisely targeted around their individual needs and interests. The manager gives staff well-being the utmost priority. Staff report that they feel extremely well supported.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) demonstrates extensive knowledge of supporting children with SEND. She has recently undertaken training, which she has shared with the staff team to continue to strengthen their understanding of working with children with SEND. The SENCo has formed positive working relationships with external agencies, such as portage and the specialist teaching service. Parents reiterate that children's needs are well supported. Children are making excellent progress in their development. Furthermore, the setting has effective transition procedures for every child to ensure that they are ready and prepared for their move to school.
• Children's behaviour is exemplary. Children learn about emotions and how to manage them by using the 'Colour Monster' book, which is used consistently throughout the setting. Adults sensitively discuss different feelings, what they might look like, and how they might feel, to help to further develop children's understanding. All staff wear lanyards with emotion illustrations to offer consistent visual support to children. When staff notice that children are not following the rules, they move down to children's height and explain the behaviour expectations.
• The manager and staff have exemplary relationships with parents. Parents are invited into the setting daily to speak to key staff and settle their children. Staff provide parents with lots of ideas to continue children's learning at home. For example, to support children's love of reading and the curriculum focus on communication and language, they have developed a lending library to enable children to take books home to read. Parents speak extremely positively about the pre-school. They comment on the 'wonderful' staff and how 'happy' their children are to attend. Parents state that there is nothing that they would change about the pre-school.
• Children are very much an integral part of the community and make the most of every opportunity to explore the local area. For example, they often take walks in the village and are excited to visit the park to pond-dip, visit the local school that many children transition to, and take rides on the bus to other places of interest. Children are provided with a wonderful range of sessions to enhance their learning, such as dancing and yoga classes that are purchased using the additional funding that the setting receives.