YMCA @ Hayes Lane

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff know the uniqueness of individual children and build very positive relationships with them. Children are very happy and settled in the calm and relaxing environment. They enjoy attending and engage excitedly in their activities with their friends. Staff promote positive attitudes to learning for all children by giving lots of praise and encouragement. The current theme of 'Marvellous Me' ensures children's achievements are celebrated. For example, everyone claps in acknowledgement when children finish singing the warm-up song. This secures their emotional well-being and embeds a positive attitude to learning for all children.

Staff support children to choose their own activities which help progress their learning. Children are highly engaged in their play which leads to positive behaviour. They use their small-hand muscles as they cut up the fruit and butter the bread. They develop their large-muscle skills, as they ride bikes with their friends along the road drawn on the ground outdoors. Children look for bugs under logs and excitedly show wonder when they find worms and beetles. Staff help children to remember the names of insects they have learned before, such as a spider, and learn the names of new insects such as a woodlouse. Children remember to wash their hands after outdoor play. This helps them develop their independence and learn about their personal safety.

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

• The strong leadership team ensures the ambitious curriculum is understood and implemented by all staff. The relationship between leaders and the staff team is one of mutual respect. Leaders provide effective support and training for staff, supporting them in their teaching. Staff well-being is of high importance. Overall teaching is good, however it is not consistently strong during outdoor activities.
• Staff deliver the curriculum effectively and understand how individual children learn. They consistently engage all children in activities which develop what they have already learned. For example, children use knives to cut their own fruit during an activity, and then practise this skill further at snack time. This helps to embed learning.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive good support. Staff identify emerging concerns early, and identify next steps to support their development, including obtaining intervention from external agencies in a timely manner. Funding is used well to support children with SEND. For example, staff work with the speech and language therapists to support children with their speech.
• All children are motivated and engaged in their learning. Younger children enjoy looking at books and bathing the dolls. Older children enjoy exploring dough and the dinosaurs. They talk about their feelings as they play with a range of masks depicting different emotions. The focus on friendships and community helps children learn about the world around them, and developing caring and respectful attitudes towards others.
• Younger children smile and happily babble in response to songs and stories. They cooperate in joint activities with their friends. For example, they bathe a doll together, listening to instructions when staff encourage them to wash the doll's arms and legs. This helps them practise their social and physical skills.
• Children's language skills are developing well. They practise words they know already and learn new words. They persevere with pronouncing words that are unfamiliar such as 'startled'. Children listen well to instructions from staff. They recall the words to 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow', a favourite song. Children know the names of dinosaurs, and also listen to familiar stories, such as the gingerbread man.
• Children develop their confidence and independence well. Some older children confidently lead their own play with minimum support from staff. For example, children play for long periods of time, lining up and counting dinosaurs. They persevere at their chosen task, such as cutting up fresh peppers. They undertake their own personal care needs, such as using the bathroom. They learn about healthy lifestyles, as they run, jump and stretch during the warm-up song.
• Partnerships with parents are very strong. Parents say they are very impressed with their children's progress since they started attending the setting. They say they especially like that their children are making friends. Parents receive detailed feedback which helps them support their child's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus the professional development of staff on raising the quality of teaching during outdoor activities to a consistently high level.