Gorse Ride Funtastic Kids Camp

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This provision meets requirements Children arrive happy and eager to start their day at this nurturing and exciting holiday club. Staff warmly welcome children and get to know them quickly.

They are supportive and responsive to all children's needs, delivering a personalised approach. New children are sometimes apprehensive, but quickly feel comfortable and safe. As children enter, they freely choose from and explore a range of interesting activities.

Staff show kindness, consideration and warmth. Older children mimic these qualities and readily help the younger ones, such as by giving them ideas when they participate in arts and crafts activities. Younger... children's self-confidence and willingness to ask for help, continues to strengthen throughout the day.

All children play harmoniously together. Leaders and staff place a high priority on developing children's independence, social and emotional skills. They do this in a number of ways, such as valuing children's choices of whether they would like to play in the school hall, classroom or playground.

Staff praise children when they share and take turns, and regularly ask children how they feel. As good role models, staff work hard to maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect. They have high expectations for children's behaviour and check that children know how to manage their own safety as they play.

Children's behaviour is excellent. This helps to create a calm and productive environment, indoors and outdoors.

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

Leaders and staff work collaboratively to plan a variety of practical activities that enhance children's life experiences.

For instance, they offer dance, sports and drama sessions run by external professionals. Staff teach children the essential skills they need to play team games, such as basketball where they learn to dribble the ball with control. They ensure that the appropriate equipment is available.

For example, younger children use lighter and smaller balls to master the dribbling technique more easily. Children keenly practise and demonstrate their commitment to succeed.Leaders and staff support children well to adopt healthy lifestyles.

They enthusiastically engage in children's activities outdoors in the fresh air. Children expertly run, climb and balance on large equipment in the playground. They devise games for their friends and staff to join in, for example, imagining the floor is lava and they need to avoid it.

During mealtimes, children talk about their favourite fruits and say 'these make us strong'. Staff organise scientific experiments for children to help them understand the importance of brushing their teeth regularly and efficiently.Leaders strive to offer a high quality service for children.

They share their vision with staff through training opportunities and closely monitoring new initiatives. For instance, leaders run training days for staff to enhance their interactions with children. They also seek constructive feedback from parents and children to help drive their continual improvements.

They form strong relationships with external professionals, such as class teachers at the schools children attend. This helps to fully understand children's ongoing care needs and how best to support them.Staff provide ample opportunities to develop children's imagination and creativity.

For example, they give children a selection of healthy foods to design and create their own models of insects. Children experiment and find the best ingredient to place antennae on their models. Some cleverly use celery sticks as an option.

As part of their independent play, children make small world models. Staff encourage them to think about the most effective ways to fit different shapes together to make a sturdy structure. This helps to develop children's problem solving skills.

On the whole, staff engage in meaningful discussions with children throughout their time at the club. Children enthusiastically share their knowledge of interesting facts. For instance, while gathering natural resources around the grounds, older children talk about not picking the bluebells, as they are an endangered plant.

However, less experienced staff do not always use such opportunities to explain or expand information to help younger children understand more fully. Leaders recognise this as an area for future development. They plan to provide individualised training programmes to help staff improve these skills further.

Leaders and staff form trusted relationships with parents. Staff hold brief discussions with parents to find out ways to help their children feel comfortable. On collection, they provide feedback to parents about their children's day.

This helps to maintain a shared approach to meeting children's individual needs. Parents report on how excited their children are to attend the club. They love to hear stories their children tell them about their new friendships.

Parents say their children benefit from accessing the planned activities timetable in advance, as it helps to ignite children's excitement for their day ahead.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

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