Busy Beavers Playgroup

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Weaknesses in the leadership and management of the playgroup have resulted in failure to meet some statutory requirements.

However, these do not have a significant impact on children's safety and well-being, or the learning and development of children.The well-established staff team works harmoniously and diligently together. Staff focus closely on getting to know children as individuals and plan to meet children's developmental needs from the start.

Children's behaviours and attitudes to learning are very good. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, staff have refocused their curriculum on the prime areas of learning. Staff im...plement well-understood and simple golden rules that embed kind and considerate behaviours.

They gently support children to be welcoming and patient with their friends and to share their thoughts and opinions. Children eagerly engage in planned activities and their independent play as soon as they arrive. They learn to wait their turn, happy to make space for each other and share resources.

All staff understand the support that each child needs to access the opportunities that staff provide. Additional funding is well targeted and has a positive impact on children's experiences. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), feel safe, secure and make progress in their learning.

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

Despite providing Ofsted with information about the election of new committee members, leaders and managers have not provided Ofsted with the required information to complete necessary suitability checks on new members of the governing body. However, these committee members do not have unsupervised access to children, nor do they have access to private or sensitive information. This means that, although there is a breach of regulations, the impact on children is not significant.

Leaders and managers do not implement the required check on children between the age of two and three years. However, staff closely observe and track the progress that children make. They discuss all children's progress together frequently to gain a full picture of how children access the provision and the progress they are making.

Staff share assessments with parents through discussion and electronic means. When children are slower to develop, or for those with SEND, staff swiftly implement strategies, through discussion with families and other agencies, that support children's individual development. Consequently, this breach does not have a significant impact on children's learning and development.

Staff plan carefully to build children's speaking and listening skills. They have developed a curriculum that has speaking with, and listening to, children at its heart. Staff encourage children to share their thoughts and to talk about themselves and things that they are interested in.

Staff skilfully build on children's conversations by the use of open-ended questions and use a range of strategies, such as pictures and props, to support children to learn key vocabulary. Consequently, children, including those learning to speak English as an additional language, develop into motivated communicators.Staff read regularly and with great enthusiasm to children, who learn to predict what will happen and thoroughly enjoy books and stories.

Children confidently select from a range of books and snuggle up with staff or with their friends as they read together. Staff provide opportunities for children to recall stories and practise the words that they have learned. Children develop a strong love of reading, which prepares them well for later learning.

Staff's planning for the prime areas, such as children's social skills and independence in their toileting and self-care, is well developed. However, staff do not yet fully consider the wider range of learning opportunities for children available through the activities that they plan. For example, during planned craft-making activities, opportunities for children to fold their own card, discuss changes in size and shape or explore what they know about the flowers they are representing are missed.

The playgroup provides for children who experience a wide range of languages and backgrounds. Although the staff are diligent in creating an environment where all children feel safe and welcomed, opportunities for children to explore and celebrate what makes them unique and consider the diversity of modern Britain are not well developed.

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 meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date provide Ofsted with all information necessary to complete required checks on members of the governing body 14/03/2024 implement a progress check for children aged between two and three years that complies with statutory requirements.14/03/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop curriculum planning, as well as support for staff, so that staff understand how to use planned activities to develop children's learning and development further develop further opportunities to recognise and celebrate the diversity within the playgroup and the wider community.