Winteringham Under Fives

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the welcoming setting eager and ready for their day. Staff greet children with a warm and friendly smile, which helps them to settle quickly. Children actively engage in their learning as they choose what they would like to do. Children show high levels of concentration in activities. For example, children practise using the scissors. They build on their physical skills as they cut around the pictures for their healthy meal plate. Staff encourage children to keep trying. This builds children's resilience. They celebrate with staff as they achieve what they set out to do.

Staff know children and their families very well. They use their knowledge to carefully plan children's learning. Children benefit from the sequenced curriculum as they make good progress across the seven areas of learning. Children work together to solve problems. For example, they hunt for numbers in the garden. When they find them, they count them and show how many they have found by holding up their fingers. This develops children's mathematical skills. Parents share their delight in the good progress their children have made at the setting.

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

• The management team and staff understand what children know and can do. They use their curriculum to build on children's learning. They have high ambitions for children. As a result, children leave the setting ready for the next step in their learning and development.
• Children enjoy rich conversations with their peers. They develop their language and listening skills. For example, children discuss how they protect strawberry plants from the birds. Staff join in with conversations and introduce new words to develop children's communication skills even further.
• Children develop their love of reading. Staff use stories to plan a range of experiences for the children. Children show that they have remembered what they have learned. For example, they talk about what 'the very hungry caterpillar' likes, as they choose the same fruit to eat for their snack. Outside, children find ways to pretend to be a caterpillar in a cocoon. They develop their physical skills as they jump out and turn into a 'butterfly'. The setting provides a library for children to take home books to share with their family.
• The staff team is aware of children's individual needs. Children who require additional support are quickly identified. The special educational needs coordinator liaises closely with parents and other agencies to provide appropriate support for children and their families. The staff team follows targeted plans that help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to make the best possible progress in their learning.
• The setting receives a range of additional funding to support children's individual needs. This includes the early years pupil premium funding (EYPP). The management team has some thoughts on how to use this funding. However, this is not yet being used as effectively as it could be to further extend children's learning.
• The management team is new to their roles and has made a range of changes to further develop the setting. It works closely together and is supported by the committee. The management team continuously reflects on what is working well and what could be improved. This reflection enables the leadership team to make improvements quickly and effectively.
• Staff feel highly supported in their work and enjoy being part of the team. The management team is improving the staff supervision arrangements. Identification of further development opportunities for staff, such as at staff supervision meetings, are sometimes missed.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus even more on the use of the EYPP funding to help children's learning to be extended even further
• develop further staff supervision arrangements so that training and development needs are identified, which will extend staff's practice most effectively.