Elvetham Heath After School Club

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This provision meets requirements Children are happy and settled and thoroughly enjoy being at the club. They are very familiar with the routines and quickly choose and get involved in activities.

Children understand the club rules and how to stay safe. During group discussions, they confidently explain that they must use 'kind hands', take care of the toys, be honest and kind, and helpful. Children know to listen, walk sensibly and stay in pairs, when staff take them to and from school.

Children concentrate very well and persist with using the resources they enjoy using. They often return to continue activities they have started the previous day. For exam...ple, designs they have made using small construction resources.

Children particularly enjoy drawing and talk confidently about their pictures.Children eagerly take part in planned group activities. For example, they use paper cups to make windmills and run races while dressed as camels.

They particularly enjoy playing imaginatively and often make up games with their friends. For instance, while using soft toys and the shop role-play resources. Children are independent.

They choose what they want to play with and help to clear the table when they have finished eating.

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

Staff know the children well and what they like to do when they are at the club. They plan a range of activities that successfully capture children's interest and involvement.

For example, to celebrate Valentine's Day staff planned a 'Lady and the Tramp party'. Children ate meatballs and spaghetti for tea and played games, such as ten-pin bowling, using skittles decorated with hearts.Staff respond to children's interest in craft activities.

They provide a range of creative resources, which children use with enthusiasm. Children enjoy making making leaf wreaths and scarecrows for a theme about autumn and treasure maps for a theme about pirates.During the summer holidays, staff plan outings to a local nature reserve where children use check lists to find and collect wildlife.

For example, dragonflies and snails which they then release back into the natural habitat. Staff use these opportunities to talk about the insects. This supports what children learn in school.

Staff join in children's play with great enthusiasm. They successfully develop children's confidence to talk. For instance, during group games, they give children clues to try and guess the name of an animal.

Children listen attentively to the clues, ask questions and keep on trying to win the game.Children take part in physical activities, indoors and outdoors. For example, they use skipping ropes and hoops and take part in races and games of football.

However, managers and staff do not evaluate and further improve the opportunities for children to be physically active outdoors. As a result, there are times when children become restless and their usual cooperative behaviour deteriorates.Staff provide positive role models for children.

They treat children with respect, have a caring and kind approach, and give them emotional support when needed. Children develop social skills and form close friendships.Staff establish positive communication with parents and the local school to meet children's individual needs.

Parents make positive comments about the club. For instance, they say the staff are very friendly, their children settled quickly and love going to the club and the food provided.Managers currently ask parents to drop off and collect their children outside the entrance to the premises, due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic risks.

Staff post information about the children's activities on the settings social media page. Managers have clear plans to enhance information given to parents. For example, by providing parents with a regular newsletter.

Staff work well in partnership with teachers in the school that children attend. They are vigilant about acting on the information that teachers share about children's well-being. For example, they use information about any accidents that children have had at school during the day so there is a record of any existing injuries.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers and staff fully understand their roles and responsibilities to safeguard children and protect them from risk. They complete safeguarding training, including the 'Prevent' duty, and know what to do if they are concerned about a child's welfare and safety.

Staff complete risk assessments of the premises, activities, and outings to reduce any hazards and keep children safe. They work well as a team to supervise children at all times. For example, when children play outdoors in an enclosed area that adjoins a public field and during outings to a nature reserve.

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