Fun 4 Kids At St Michaels

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This provision meets requirements Children thoroughly enjoy their time at the club. They arrive with smiles and are greeted by the happy, warm and welcoming staff. Children settle well and form strong relationships with staff and their peers.

Children are confident and have high levels of self-esteem. They confidentially approach visitors to tell them how much they love the club. Children excitedly show the inspector how to make bracelets.

They share with the inspector how much they value staff for helping them with their homework and listening to their worries. Children show high levels of empathy and kindness towards each other. When a child is upset abo...ut their bracelet breaking, other children rally round to reassure them that it is ok and how they can mend it.

Children learn these positive behaviours from staff who are excellent role models. Children behave extremely well and know what is expected of them. Both staff and children show a mutual respect for each other.

Children have impeccable manners and are considerate of all others. Staff support children to understand how to keep themselves safe. They remind children how to use the safety knives with care, when cutting vegetables.

Children are very independent. They make their own snacks and wash up their plates. Children learn life skills, such as how to safely cut fruit and vegetables.

They thoroughly enjoy play activities based on their interests and what they are learning about in school. They proudly talk about their Flanders Fields model they have made.

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

The management team has high expectations of staff.

The team value their knowledge and skills and build on those to ensure the best outcomes for children. Staff are given specialist roles based on their skills and interests. They are passionate about the roles they do.

As a result, children receive high-quality care.Staff provide a calm and relaxing, home-from-home environment for children. Children settle exceptionally well and form very close attachments to staff and their peers.

Children's well-being and self-esteem are at the heart of everything staff do. Staff understand the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on children's emotional well-being. They have put a variety of tools in place to help children manage their emotions.

Staff talk to the children about how they are feeling every session. They also use activities, such as sensory bottles, scribbling or counting to help children manage their feelings. Staff have created a 'buddy' system.

Children are picked each session to keep a look out for children who are feeling sad or may need a friend to talk to or play with.Staff value children's opinions. They encourage children to contribute their ideas to what activities they have at the club and children have created their own 'club rules'.

This shows children that they are valued and respected.Staff are very skilled in their approach to interactions with children. They are always close by and at children's level.

Staff enthusiastically engage in play with children. They seize opportunities to reinforce or build on what children are learning about in school.An excellent variety of resources and activities are available.

These engage children and help them build on their imaginations and creativity.Staff get to know children really well and build strong relationships with their parents. Parents comment that their children love the club so much they never want to leave.

Staff understanding the importance of promoting children's physical health. Children enjoy a wide variety of physical exercise and fresh air every session. They engage in sports activities, such as football, basketball and running games.

Staff also embrace children's decision to bring toys from inside onto the playground, such as doll's houses and drawing.The management team and staff have formed strong relationships with the local schools that children attend. They keep in regular contact about children's development, needs and safety.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continuously liaised with the schools to ensure that they were doing everything they could between them to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a very good knowledge of safeguarding.

They can identify the signs and symptoms of abuse and know the action to take if they have concerns. Including if they have a concern about other staff members. Thorough recruitment measures are in place to ensure that all staff are suitable to work with children.

The management team and staff keep up to date with risks that children may come across on the internet. Staff talk to children about how they can keep themselves safe online. Staff also speak to parents about the latest concerns and what they can do at home to keep their children safe.

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