Junior Adventures Group @ Hatfield AL10

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This provision meets requirements Changes to the management and staff team since the last inspection have led to improvements at the club. Staff use the knowledge from behaviour management training to provide children with consistent messages regarding their behaviour. Staff implement successful strategies to gain children's attention and children respond swiftly to these.

For instance, children copy the clapping and finger clicking rhythms staff use when they want to speak to the whole group together.Staff now implement well planned and structured sessions, which help children to remain engaged throughout their time at the club. Children take an active role in pla...nning the activities they complete.

Staff hold weekly meetings with children, sharing the options for activities with them. They hold discussions together about what they have enjoyed and what they would like to complete during the following week. This helps children to have a sense of belonging and teaches them that staff appreciate their views and opinions.

Staff prepare a range of healthy snack options for children. This process now ensures that the food children eat is fresh when served. Staff invite children to be 'helpers' at snack time.

Children eagerly raise their hands to have a turn, washing their hands and putting on aprons. They help staff to lay everything out before serving their friends, following the instructions staff give them well.

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

Children settle well when they arrive from school.

They are familiar with the arrival routine, which is now fully embedded. They hang up their bags and wash their hands, before settling quickly to an activity of their choosing. Children all participate in registration time and discuss the rules which are in place.

Staff encourage older children to read these out and this helps the youngest children who attend to fully understand what staff expect from them. The oldest children act as positive role models for the younger children and engage in games with them. As a result, the club has a calm and friendly atmosphere.

Staff feel happy and receive effective support in their roles. They speak positively about the range of training opportunities on offer. Regular discussions with the manager help them to identify appropriate areas to develop their knowledge further.

This provides children with consistently positive interactions with all of the staff who work at the club.Children enjoy playing outside. For instance, they enjoy playing parachute games with staff.

However, when it is time for another activity to begin indoors, children are sometimes unclear about the options they have. For example, some children would prefer to remain outside to play. Staff do not fully communicate the choices that children have in advance, so that they have time to consider what activity they would like to do next.

A number of improvements have taken place to meet the requirements of the club's registration. The manager and staff have reflected on the arrangement of the space children use. For instance, staff have moved furniture to create more space for children to play independently on the floor.

However, staff are still developing this further. They have not yet fully considered the layout of the room to ensure that children have space to sit together, such as during snack time. As a result, occasionally children become distracted by toys or activities at the table.

Additionally, they do not have the opportunity to hold discussions or interact with one another purposefully as they eat.The manager of the club also works in the school. She uses a range of strategies and ideas from the school at the club and this helps to provide children with consistency between the settings they attend.

For example, children use their name cards to communicate with staff how they feel, placing their name card under the relevant feeling picture. This helps staff to engage children in sensitive discussions to talk about their day if needed. Communication between parents, the staff at the club, and school staff is highly effective.

This benefits the children who attend.

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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