Little Acorns Playgroup

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The leadership team reflects well on the provision, adapting it to help children develop their skills.

Staff have created a more spacious role-play area and a creative 'beauty salon', responding to children's interests and supporting their imagination successfully.Children have good opportunities to explore the outdoors. They attend forest-school activities where they enjoy looking for natural materials, such as pine cones during a scavenger hunt.

Children relish using leaves, twigs, mud and water to make 'magic potions' to support their imaginative skills. They then relax with a hot chocolate and recap on the activiti...es they have enjoyed at the end of the session, developing their social and language skills effectively.The introduction of a new healthy eating programme helps teach children about nutritious foods.

Children grow vegetables, such as mange tout and potatoes, and use these to create 'healthy chips'. They enjoy mackerel pate, blackberries and scrambled eggs for their snack, encouraging children to try a good range of different flavours and textures.Children behave well.

They are caring and considerate to others and are happy in their environment. Staff encourage children to share and take turns. Children have a positive attitude to learning and are curious to investigate and explore the activities available.

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

Staff help children to develop good communication skills. For instance, children use a variety of methods to say 'hello', such as waving, 'high-fives' and talking. This encourages children to develop their confidence and communicate in a way that makes them feel comfortable.

Staff also use 'choice cards' to enable younger children to understand and make their own decisions independently. Older children use sign language to make their meaning clear to younger ones.Children engage in a variety of activities led by adults, such as mathematical and literacy programmes.

Although children enjoy these, staff do not consistently tailor them to meet children's individual needs and abilities. Some activities lack challenge whereas others are too difficult for them. Staff teaching does not always enable children to build on their capabilities, such as extending their understanding of measurements and number recognition to help them make even more progress in their development.

Partnerships with parents is effective. Staff ensure they are actively involved in their children's learning and are encouraged to utilise their strengths with the provision. Opportunities to find out about different occupations, such as the fire and police service, help to successfully teach children about the world around them.

Staff develop children's self-esteem well. Children have opportunities to look after 'Fairy Sarah' and 'Rescue Bear' at home and record their adventures in a diary. Children enjoy taking responsibility for the toys and talk about their experiences.

They receive 'star of the week' certificates to celebrate their accomplishments and develop good resilience. For instance, children persevere when building a tower of bricks. They demonstrate pride in their achievements, such as when making an obstacle course made from cubes and autumn biscuits.

Staff support children in managing their emotions effectively. They have attended training to develop strategies in helping children to understand and express their feelings constructively. Children use pebbles with facial expressions and rapidly make marks on paper, helping to them to recognise different moods and relieve their frustrations positively.

The leadership team carries out frequent staff supervision and supports their well-being and training needs effectively. It has formed strong relationships with other professionals to help children make good progress in their development.Staff and children have formed close attachments.

Children enjoy snuggling up on the sofa with staff, listening to a story. Staff meet their care needs thoroughly, supporting children's personal development and independence.Children have strong opportunities to be active and engage in physical exercise.

They attend sport sessions, fitness dance classes, and interactive music-and-movement sessions.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Recruitment procedures are robust.

The leadership team ensures staff have the essential skills and knowledge to care for children. Appropriate checks are in place to ensure new staff are, and remain, suitable to work with children. A detailed induction process ensures staff understand their roles and responsibilities.

The leadership team and staff have a good awareness of child protection procedures and know who to contact should a child be at risk. They all attend safeguarding training regularly and know to access relevant numbers to report a concern.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: tailor activities led by adults more precisely to meet the individual needs of all children, to ensure they make the progress of which they are capable nextend mathematical opportunities even more, particularly for the most able children to further their understanding of measurements and number recognition more successfully.

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