Worlebury Willows Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the welcoming setting happily. They greet their friends and are quick to engage in a range of exciting activities. The environment is welcoming. Caring and approachable staff have carefully considered the learning environment to provide a balance of experiences. Children are motivated to learn and make choices about their play. For example, some children choose to play outside. They confidently climb, play hide and seek with ladybird pebbles or play imaginatively in the mud kitchen.

Daily routines help children to sequence the day and understand expectations. Children know that when they hear the tambourine they need to stop and listen. They follow instructions well, for example to form a circle for group time. Children behave well. Staff manage behaviour effectively. They are calm and talk to children at their level of understanding. When minor disputes occur, staff invite both children to talk through what has happened and encourage them to find a solution.

There are effective partnerships with parents. Parents value the support offered during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. For example, they received regular welfare emails, fun activities to support learning, poetry and links to favourite stories, and staff engaged them in interactive scavenger hunts to keep children motivated. The key-person system is highly effective in supporting children's emotional security.

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

• All children are well supported in a fully inclusive setting. Those children with special educational needs and or disabilities receive good support to help them reach the best possible outcomes. Staff work closely with local schools to enable a smooth transition when they start school. There are effective links with other agencies to provide continued and consistent support.
• Staff use their training and knowledge to support children to build stories for them to scribe. Children participate enthusiastically and show good imagination as they explore their ideas and build their vocabulary. They delight in sharing their stories and act them out with their friends. Staff support children's literacy skills effectively. Children rewrite their favourite stories and explore different ways to describe the hungry caterpillar.
• Staff know children well and plan an exciting range of activities to support their interests and next steps in learning. Staff assess children's progress accurately. They know what is needed to help children make the best possible progress. Occasionally, staff do not fully engage children in their learning. For example, younger children wait while older children dress for physical activity and staff do not engage them in purposeful play. Some small-group activities, such as 'story box', do not always engage less confident children to express their ideas.
• Staff support fundamental British values effectively. For example, they use 'Kirsty the kindness elf' to help children recognise kind acts. Staff celebrate these achievements, which helps children build high levels of self-esteem. Staff respect children's choices. For example, children decide which language to use to say hello in response to their name during registration time. Children are given many opportunities to make independent choices, for example they vote on which story to listen to.
• There are good hygiene arrangements to help keep children healthy. Children know to wash their hands when they enter the setting and before they eat. They confidently explain why they need to wash their hands.
• Staff use risk assessments well to ensure they provide a safe and secure environment for children to play. The owner/manager monitors accident records efficiently and adjusts the environment when required. When accidents occur in the 'physical area' of the hall, the owner/manager is quick to establish rules with the children to help their understanding of how to keep themselves safe.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve the organisation of group times to enable less confident children to share their ideas and to ensure younger children are purposefully engaged when they wait for older children to join them.