Little Ladybirds Private Pre-School And Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Exceptional focus is given to providing younger children with all the support they need to settle and feel secure.

Staff visit children at home to get to know them and obtain information about their needs before they attend the setting. Children enjoy a nurturing environment. Staff skilfully support children to develop strong relationships with adults and friendships with other children.

The impact of this is very evident as young children demonstrate good levels of curiosity and confidence to explore their surroundings with staff and other children. Older children develop confidence to take part in an array of activit...ies and experiences that help to ignite their curiosity and motivation to learn and have fun. They take part in regular forest school activities in the nearby woodland.

Children learn how to identify a wide range of creatures. They explore, use and talk about the natural materials they find. Children learn to be still and listen to their breathing and to the sounds they hear around them.

Children develop new skills as they learn how to use real tools safely during woodwork activities. They learn how to join materials such as wood, cork and buttons. Older children have further opportunities to extend their physical skills.

They follow instructions as they learn new skills in dance and rugby.

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

Staff are kind, caring and sensitive towards children. They model curiosity and help children to understand and use new vocabulary during all activities.

Staff continually introduce new and unusual activities to expand children's experiences and help them to progress in their development. The curriculum is monitored and areas for improvement are identified. Recent self-evaluation accurately identified that children have numerous opportunities to count and experiment with shape and measure, but fewer opportunities to develop their interest and understanding of numbers.

However, this area for improvement has not yet been addressed.Excellent partnerships are developed with parents. Parents are provided with detailed and individually tailored information to help them support their child's learning at home.

Parents report that they know exactly what their children are learning. They comment on how well their children settle and progress in their learning.There is a high emphasis placed on monitoring children's progress.

Staff identify where children may need extra support to develop the skills they need for their next stage in learning, including their move to school. Staff plan a range of highly effective small-group adult-led sessions that successfully give a boost to children's progress in areas such as listening and speaking skills. Staff are particularly effective in providing extra support to help children to manage their feelings and behaviour.

Children learn how to play cooperatively with others, take turns and share resources. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress. Staff work closely with parents and any other agencies so that children get all of the individual support they need.

Children make good progress in their literacy skills. From an early age, they take part in activities that help develop all the muscles that are needed for early writing skills. Older children develop the skill to hold a pencil correctly and learn to recognise and write their name.

Children are supported well to develop an interest in and enjoyment of books.Good focus is given to promoting the emotional well-being of staff. Staff report that they feel well supported in their roles.

They receive regular supervision and take part in training events. A number of staff have been supported in developing their professional knowledge and skills to an exceptional level. However, this expertise has not been fully disseminated to staff with less experience and knowledge of teaching.

Consequently, some staff are not as skilled in giving children enough time and help to express their own ideas and further develop their creative and critical thinking skills.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a strong understanding of their roles and responsibilities to safeguard children.

They have a thorough knowledge of the signs that may indicate a child is at risk of harm. They understand and follow correct reporting procedures if they have a concern about a child or the behaviour of another member of staff. Recruitment and ongoing checks are robust and help to ensure staff are suitable to work with children.

Staff provide high levels of supervision for children. They help children to learn and practise risk assessment skills as they take part in all activities.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nact more swiftly on areas of improvement identified through self-evaluation, in this instance increase opportunities for children to develop an interest in and an understanding and use of numerals disseminate further the expertise of staff so that staff with less experience and knowledge of teaching develop their skills, particularly in relation to giving older children enough time and support to express their own ideas and further develop their creative and critical thinking skills.

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