Forest Kindergarten

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children are extremely confident and settle quickly into their play environment. They know the staff very well and develop exceptionally close and effective relationships with them.

This helps them to feel extremely secure, welcome and well cared for. For example, young children comfortably settle into staff's laps for cuddles, reading books together and talking about their day. Children freely explore and experiment throughout the natural and nurturing play environment.

They show very high levels of confidence to extend their physical skills, through an abundance of positive experiences. They constantly test th...eir ability and their sense of safety. Staff provide an exceptional and sensitive approach to installing confidence, positive attitudes and pride in children's new found skills.

Children develop strong and respectful relationships with their peers, supporting each other's learning by inviting others into their play. They develop positive attitudes towards sharing their talents and achievements with others and develop powerful skills to collaborate their play highly successfully.Children develop a rich knowledge of language, vocabulary and skills to communicate their needs.

They use very elaborate and expressive language to describe their play, to develop their imaginations and creative minds. Staff purposefully extend their vocabulary by introducing new words, to securely embed the use them throughout their play. Staff celebrate children's uniqueness.

Children feel positive about their achievements and openly and proudly share these with others. Staff recognise how each child learns. They provide a stimulating and challenging environment in which children reach their full potential.

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

Staff are very effective educators. They use natural environments to extensively promote children's creative thinking and problem-solving. They use carefully worded questions to probe children's knowledge, helping them to recall past experiences.

Children take time to absorb information from staff, to think about their knowledge and to respond in their own time and words.Staff are eager to learn and develop their professional knowledge. They are proactive in their approach to training, sourcing information.

They use this very effectively to make immediate changes to the learning environment for individual children.Children learn to take safe risks. They have a can-do attitude, understanding their own physical capabilities.

Staff actively encourage children to test their abilities through trial and error. Children are very capable of assessing natural hazards and confidently extend their learning. For example, children pull ropes but stop due to the rope being stuck in a fallen branch.

They quickly question why, change the direction and movement to ensure that it does not get stuck again.Children engage in plentiful opportunities to increase their ability to recall and develop story telling strategies. Staff meaningfully engage with children to capture their imaginations, through the use of music, to think about their story.

They describe characters in great detail, telling others what they look like and what their adventure is. This fully supports children's imaginations and their confidence to express themselves through descriptive talk. It also helps them to concentrate to complete a story.

Children develop very confident knowledge of mathematical concepts. Staff encourage children to use natural environments to learn about numbers, amounts, shape, measure, weight and movement. For example, children use sticks and rocks to compare weight in two buckets that are hung from a tree.

They watch the movement of the buckets to calculate which is heavier.Parents make extremely positive comments about the partnership they have with staff. They comment about the excellent level of care and education their children receive.

Staff know their children very well and provide an individual service for each of them, according to their abilities and their personalities.Children show increasingly high levels of independence. They make choices for themselves as to where to play, and who and what to play with.

They confidently adapt their environment to successfully achieve their aims. Children learn to use equipment to meet their needs very effectively. They independently use bottles of water and soap to wash their hands, showing a clear understanding of personal hygiene.

They show a great respect for each other when using the outdoor toilets by giving each other privacy and dignity.Staff work tirelessly to support children's transitions to other settings. They develop positive communication with schools and provide children with information about the schools to support their confidence to attend full-time education.

They show a deep respect for parent's choices as to whether to defer their school attendance or to home school their children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a very good understanding of how to promote the ongoing safety of children.

They have robust knowledge of procedures to follow if they have a concern about a child in their care. They are very aware of the signs and symptoms of child abuse. Children play safely, freely exploring their play environment.

This is because staff and management complete thorough risk assessment themselves and through the additional use of specialists. Effective procedures are in place to protect children from other users of the woods, working in partnership with dog owners and horse riders to provide a safe environment for both children and other users. This also help children to form an understanding of community.