Avening Playgroup

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children make good progress in their learning from their individual starting points, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Most children have attained confident communication skills. Those who find verbal communication more difficult receive good support using sign language and pictorial cards that relate to key parts of the playgroup activities and routine. Children gain the skills they need to prepare them for school.

Children receive a warm welcome from the caring, attentive staff. All children show that they are settled, happy, and enjoy their play and learning experiences. T...hey receive very good support from staff to encourage them to make choices and join in the planned activities.

Children learn to play cooperatively, and older children are quick to help their younger peers. Children are well behaved. They wait patiently to take turns, for example during snack time and group activities.

Children show increasing independence, learning to put on their coats, pour drinks, select resources and tidy away activities. They show confidence and motivation to learn. Children wait excitedly to find out what creative activity is planned and get busy creating dough minibeasts.

They talk about their creations and count the number of legs, wings and eyes as they use the array of craft resources. Staff encourage children to take great pride in their creations, much to the delight of the children.

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

The manager has a good oversight of the effectiveness of the curriculum.

She works closely with staff to assess children's progress and identify gaps in their learning. Together, they plan a curriculum that takes account of what children know and can do. They instinctively promote children's learning.

They provide extra support for children with SEND but do not maximise opportunities to challenge the most able children. For example, some children already know the names of simple shapes. They identify triangles, rectangles and squares, but staff miss the opportunity to introduce more complex shapes.

Staff use children's interests to enhance the curriculum and adapt planned activities to respond to children's ideas and learning opportunities that arise. For example, children spot insects outdoors and this leads to a variety of activities planned to increase children's knowledge of minibeasts. Children use magnifying glasses to explore the features of insects and habitats.

They hear about various creatures and learn to source information from books to increase their understanding of the world.Children learn to respect one another. They learn about cultural celebrations and experiences of their friends, parents and staff.

For example, the manager tells children about living in Germany and they taste traditional German food. However, the curriculum does not incorporate many opportunities for children to learn about communities different to their own.Children benefit from time spent outside.

They explore the inviting outdoor play spaces with confidence and independence. They develop their small and large muscles as they take part in gardening activities, enjoy water play, use sit-and-ride toys, propel themselves on the swings, climb and bounce vigorously on the trampoline.Staff are positive role models and make use of all opportunities to demonstrate good manners.

They foster children's self-esteem very well. They praise children highly for their achievements, such as trying new things and being helpful.Staff promote children's communication and language and mathematical development well.

They instinctively weave new vocabulary and many mathematical ideas into conversations. They take every opportunity to chat to children and encourage them to count. Many children recognise numerals.

They understand positional language and the concept of more or less.Children are supported to develop their early writing skills through planned activities. Mark-making resources are readily available for them to use indoors and outdoors.

Many children draw with control and some can write their names.Staff establish strong partnerships with parents from the outset. They work with parents to help children to settle and gather information about children's developmental progress and families.

They routinely share information about children's experiences and their focus for future learning. Parents are invited to stay-and-play sessions and community events to involve them in their children's play and learning. Feedback from parents is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the provision.

The committee provides valuable support to the staff team and they work together to look at ways to continuously improve the provision, despite financial constraints. Thorough suitability checks are completed when new staff are recruited. Members of the committee regularly spend time in the setting to monitor the provision and they provide staff with good access to training.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: make the very best use of opportunities that arise during activities to challenge the most able children to maximise their thinking and learning create more opportunities for children to gain an understanding of and respect for people, families and communities different to their own.