Emley Playschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The manager and staff warmly welcome all children and their families to this inclusive playschool. They provide a thoughtfully planned and well-organised environment to help to support children's independent learning.

Staff fully understand how each defined area in the playschool supports children's learning. Children enjoy many opportunities to play without interruption. For example, they concentrate for long periods in the enclosed construction area, building tall towers with bricks that connect together.

Children develop resilience and persist until they succeed in the tasks they set themselves.Children talk confide...ntly to visitors and demonstrate how safe they feel in the playschool. They enthusiastically click their fingers together and confidently teach adults how to do this.

Children display their enjoyment, are happy and thrive. They develop exceptionally strong relationships with their key person and display their obvious affection for them. Children show extremely polite behaviour.

They say 'excuse me' when they want to get past, and politely ask adults, 'Please can I borrow your pen.' Staff are excellent role models for children. They have high expectations of children and provide them with consistent and nurturing support to help them understand what to do.

Children are eager to learn and behave well.

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

The manager and staff work incredibly hard to support vulnerable children and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff value each child as a unique individual.

They help children to develop their understanding of people who are different to themselves. Children display how safe they feel. The manager uses additional funding effectively to enrich children's learning.

Highly qualified staff are skilled in supporting children's language development. They quickly identify children whose speech is delayed and make swift referrals to other professionals for additional help. Staff sensitively repeat the words that children use and give the correct pronunciation.

They regularly sing songs using an expressive tone of voice to help focus children's listening skills. Children are motivated and enthusiastically sing songs. Older children speak confidently using well-constructed sentences.

Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents speak highly of the playschool and state, 'It's like a home from home and everyone is welcome.' They feel that their children are very well supported.

Staff provide parents with regular updates about their children's progress. They also share ideas to help them support their children's learning at home. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to help maintain a consistent approach for children.

Staff extend children's understanding of the world effectively and provide plenty of time for them to explore Arctic play animals. They help children to understand the differences between wolves, polar bears and penguins. Children are curious and delight in covering their hands and arms as they explore white foam in a large tray.

They confidently say, 'My hands have gone.' Staff are responsive and challenge children's thinking well as they encourage them to explain what has happened. However, occasionally, staff do not ensure that whole-group activities consistently match the developmental stage of the youngest children.

Children enjoy being creative and ably select the brushes, paint and paper they need. They concentrate well as they paint pictures and mix colours together to make new colours. Staff teach children how to make kites, using paper and string.

They spontaneously sing 'Let's go fly a kite' and children try to fly their creations. Older children show their good memory recall skills and confidently explain that they were flying their kites in the wind.Staff promote children's independence incredibly well.

They encourage children to make choices in where to play and what resources to choose for their activities. Children independently select books from a wide collection. They show their understanding of familiar stories as they use the pictures to help them retell the tales to their friends.

Children competently dress themselves when going outdoors. They also manage their self-care needs with confidence and pour their own drinks at snack time.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff are vigilant about safety and put in place a range of procedures to help keep children safe. For example, they ensure that the gates to the outdoors are padlocked when children go outside. This prevents unauthorised persons from gaining access.

Staff identify the possible signs that might indicate a child is at risk of harm. They understand how to report any concerns they may have about a child's welfare or the behaviour of a colleague. The manager provides training for staff to help ensure their safeguarding knowledge is up to date.

All staff hold first-aid qualifications. This helps them to act swiftly in the event of a child having an accident.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance planning of whole-group activities to match the developmental stage of all children, specifically the youngest children.