Whiteshill Preschool Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly greet children and their families as they arrive, and children arrive excited and happy to go to playgroup. Children are confident when separating from their parents. They demonstrate independence and show that they know the routines well. Children eagerly put their bags and drinks away, and they are quick to seek out their friends to play and explore the activities.

The leadership team has created a curriculum that focuses on helping children to be independent and resilient, to develop self-belief and to feel safe and secure. They want to empower children to learn to manage situations without relying on adults to do it for them. Children demonstrate these skills as they confidently talk about how they feel, and they are learning to share and take turns with resources with little support from staff.

Leaders and staff provide children with an interesting and stimulating environment to allow them to learn through using their interests. For instance, children practise counting and simple subtraction with staff as they use props during number songs. They then go and independently practise these skills as they use the scales to weigh and sort toys, developing their mathematical awareness further.

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

• The leadership team has made significant improvements since the last inspection. Leaders have worked very hard as a team to address the previous weaknesses. The committee is invested in supporting leaders and staff so that they all have the support and guidance needed to provide children with a well-planned and sequenced curriculum. Leaders have a clear oversight of the provision. They recognise their strengths and areas that are continuing to develop and embed further. For instance, as the curriculum is new, this needs to be embedded further to continue to enhance children's learning and experiences.
• Leaders and staff monitor children's progress closely. They have a good understanding of which children have gaps in their learning and what children need to learn next. Overall, staff are skilled in their interactions with children. Staff focus on helping children to develop their listening and concentration skills, and this is well planned around the children's ages and level of understanding. Older children enjoy playing games where they learn to listen and match sounds to objects. They listen carefully and sound out the words confidently. Younger children enjoy drawing and talking to staff about their pictures.
• Children have lots of opportunities to develop their communication and language skills. Leaders and staff skilfully model language and introduce new words as they play alongside children. Children eagerly join in with songs and familiar rhymes. Children confidently narrate their own games as they play imaginatively with their friends. For instance, they pretend that the doll's bed is a bus and talk in detail to staff about their journeys.
• The key-person system helps to build secure relationships between staff, children and parents and promotes positive partnership working. Parents are very complimentary about the support that their children receive. Leaders and staff know the children well, and overall, staff target support effectively for children's individual needs. However, at times, staff do not recognise when some of the older and more physical children could do with more opportunities to access more physical play.
• Leaders and staff have implemented clear and consistent routines and boundaries. Children refer to the rules and know what is coming next, as they use their visual timeline to understand the structure of their day. Staff help children learn to manage their feelings and behaviour, and they work closely with parents to be consistent with their strategies. However, children do not receive the same support when learning to care for the resources and environment; they often drop toys on the floor when they are finished playing with them and allow staff to tidy up while they continue playing.
• Safeguarding practices are strong; leaders and staff have good procedures in place to monitor children's welfare. They understand the procedures that they should follow if they were to have any concerns about children or their families.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to embed the curriculum to ensure children receive the challenge that they need to progress further
• enhance staff knowledge and understanding of adapting practice to support the older and more physical children's needs
• support children in understanding how to take care of the resources and their learning environment.