Wellington Boots Playgroup & Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff engage children in conversations that are meaningful. Children learn in a language-rich environment. Staff take time to explain and give examples to prompt children's thinking and deepen their understanding. The impact of this is that children develop strong social interactions and feel they are valued.

Children explore and investigate the activities with appropriate adult support and supervision. They develop positive relationships with each other and are creative in their play. For example, children make pretend food in the role-play area, which they share. They use real resources, such as flour and water to make dough.

Children have good attitudes and are active in their learning. They are content and confident in their surroundings and demonstrate a good sense of belonging. Staff know the children well and successfully manage and support their behaviour. For instance, staff model expected behaviour effectively and have realistic rules and boundaries for children to follow. This helps children to feel safe and secure in their environment and creates a culture of respect. Furthermore, children are building good foundations for understanding what is right and what is wrong, which helps prepares them well for their future.

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

• Children are happy, and their personal, social and emotional needs are met effectively. They go to staff for emotional support and reassurance, when needed. Staff are nurturing in their interactions and give gentle guidance to help children settle and feel safe and assured.
• Parents speak highly of the care, support and education that their children receive. They are kept up to date with their child's progress and learning. Managers explain the benefit of working in partnership with parents. They meet with parents regularly and share information about their children. Parents feel involved and work well with the staff team to improve the provision, which benefits children effectively.
• Managers and staff have clear ambition to improve. They use reflection as an effective tool to evaluate ways to enhance practice and the provision. For instance, they have worked closely with parents to fundraise and improve the garden. As a result, children play and explore outdoors safely and promote their physical skills and learning outdoors. Staff have also developed the music area to be more inviting and enhance children's communication and social skills.
• Staff have a clear vision of what children need to learn next and how to get them there. They understand what they are teaching children and focus on key elements of development. However, at times, during whole-group activities, not all children participate. Children become distracted and lose focus, which does not support their learning as well as possible during these times.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. Children listen and understand what is happening next. For example, when it is snack time, they know to wash their hands before they eat. Children are polite, such as learning to say 'please' and 'thank you'.
• Children are confident to try and to explore. For example, younger children calmly persevere as they try to work out how to use different resources. Children join staff to make and decorate clocks. They talk about shapes and the differently size circles, such as 'big' and 'small'. Staff count with the children, while older children write numbers on their clock as well as their names. Staff praise children for trying and for their achievements.
• Managers support staff effectively and focus on ways to enhance their skills and knowledge. They identify staff's strengths and use these in their practice, and also recognise areas to be developed. Staff have good attitudes and feel supported. They seek to enhance their skills with training. They understand the impact this has on their ability to deliver good outcomes for children and their families.
• Staff provide additional support to children when necessary. They seek advice from other professionals promptly. However, partnership with other provisions that children also attend is yet to be embedded to help enhance consistency for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review whole-group activities with children to ensure that their individual needs are met
• develop effective partnerships with other provisions that children also attend to support continuity in learning.