Little Angels Pre-School Ltd Swadlincote

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Staff provide a very welcoming environment. Parents and carers feel comfortable to stay and discuss their children's needs and watch them join in with the activities.

Children happily enter the setting and start playing.Staff are consistently effective in their support to help children understand the expectations within the pre-school. They sensitively deliver clear and simple explanations to children that help them to understand the impact of their behaviour.

This is an area of the curriculum to which staff have given careful consideration, and they know what they want children to learn. However, staff are less familiar ...with the intentions for some of the other areas of learning. This means that some activities lack focus and challenge to help children build on what they already know.

Children use their imaginations as they pretend they are going on a picnic. They are all keen to join in, and they gather the food and crockery they will need. They use different objects, such as pegs, to represent some of the food they want to make.

Staff encourage children's participation and provide support to motivate younger children to get involved. However, staff's teaching methods are not always appropriate for the type of activity, and as they start to ask lots of questions, children's engagement diminishes.

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

The manager has taken steps to address the actions from the last inspection.

She has developed the arrangements for the supervision of staff, which staff find supportive. The manager identifies where staff need support and provides coaching and training. While this ensures that staff understand their roles and responsibilities to meet children's needs and ensure a smooth transition between routines, the quality of teaching is variable.

Staff are not clear on all aspects of the curriculum and what they want children to learn. Despite knowing the children well, staff are not consistently helping children to build on what they already know and can do.Staff provide a broad range of age-appropriate activities and resources that support children's learning.

They resource areas according to children's current interests. However, most activity areas are enclosed or sectioned by large pieces of furniture, leaving a small amount of space for children to play. This means that only a very small number of children can participate in an activity at one time.

Children sometimes struggle to move some of the resources around, indoors and outdoors, such as a pushchair or tricycle. Despite this, children behave well.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported.

The manager ensures that she is well prepared for meetings with external professionals. She understands the referral process and sensitively supports parents and carers in making referrals, if needed. The manager skilfully delivers one-to-one activities to help children achieve their targets.

She ensures that children are given the support they need to be involved in all group activities.Staff promote a love of stories and songs. Children enjoy joining in with familiar rhymes and action songs.

They are developing their physical skills as they move in different ways. For example, they squat down and then reach up high. They use their small-muscle skills as they fold a small piece of fabric and pretend they are making the bed.

They slow down their movements when they recognise the tempo of the music changing. Children are eager to listen to stories, and staff introduce new vocabulary, although they do not always explain what the new words mean, to embed this learning.Parents and carers speak very highly of the staff.

They express how effective their support is in helping children to settle. Parents and carers also value the frequency of the information sharing and commend the quality of information, which gives them ideas on how they can support children's learning at home. They explain how children use the skills they learn at pre-school when, for example, they go shopping.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have recently refreshed their knowledge and understanding of child protection and retain a good level of understanding in order to identify and manage concerns. The manager has appropriate systems in place to check the suitability of all staff working at the pre-school.

Staff implement risk assessments effectively to ensure the safe arrival and collection of children and their ongoing safety throughout the session. Staff maintain constant communication between themselves to ensure that children are supervised at all times, including when they are split between the indoor and outdoor play areas.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must: Due date organise the premises to provide sufficient space for children to move around freely and join in with activities of their choosing 15/12/2023 ensure that staff have a clear understanding of the curriculum and that they know what they want children to learn 15/03/2024 ensure that staff use appropriate teaching methods to support children's learning and help children to make good or better progress 15/03/2024 develop further the supervision arrangements for staff, to drive the quality of teaching to a higher level.

15/03/2024