Mini Explorers Play School Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy spending most of their day outdoors either in the pre-school garden or in the forest site. They explore and investigate the natural environment.

Children have unique opportunities to manage and take risks when they use tools. Staff show and explain to children how to use a bow saw to cut wood safely. This contributes to children's understanding of how to use tools safely.

Children show good hand and eye coordination when they use a hammer to tap nails into wood and use tools to take bark off wood.Children generally arrive happy and, if they are upset, staff are quick to support them. For example, staff d...istract children.

Staff show children pictures and talk to them about other children they see. This successfully helps children to settle quickly. Staff have high expectations of children's learning.

They follow children's interests and plan experiences to extend children's development. For example, when children cut tree branches, staff talk to them about how they can find out the age of a tree. This helps children to develop their understanding of the resources they use.

Children behave well and show kindness to staff and their friends. They talk to staff about their needs and wishes and show that they are emotionally secure.

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

Staff support children to follow personal hygiene routines.

For example, they ask them to wash their hands prior to eating. Children understand why they need to wash their hands and say that it is because, 'There are germs that you cannot see.' The manager closely monitors the progress children make and ensures that children receive a good quality of education.

Staff use the curriculum to provide small-group activities to help close any gaps in learning and to provide children with the best start in early education. Children sit and listen to staff during group times and follow instructions. Staff ask children a good range of questions and give them time to respond.

This helps children to develop their thinking skills and confidence in speaking.Parents comment positively about their children's experiences at the pre-school. They say that they like how staff interact with children and that their children bring things home that they have made, such as a 'wreath made from wood' and 'people made from tree bark'.

Staff extend their professional development. They attend forest school training. This helps to deepen their understanding of how to enhance learning experiences for children outdoors.

An example of this is when staff ask children to throw leaves in the air. Children squeal in excitement and show awe and wonder as they watch them fall.Staff help children to learn how they can keep themselves safe when they are in the natural environment.

For example, when children see mushrooms growing on the ground, staff explain that they must not touch them because it may make them poorly. Children listen and follow instructions.The manager works closely with schools that children will attend.

She invites teachers to see the children in the pre-school. The manager exchanges information about children's individual needs and abilities with teachers. This contributes to consistency in children's learning.

Staff do not consistently help all children to learn about the potential risks when they use technology.Staff find out about children's interests when they first start. This helps them to provide activities and experiences that they know children enjoy, encouraging them to settle.

However, staff do not use information gathered from parents, about children's prior learning and abilities, effectively enough to help plan more precisely for children's development when they first start.Staff support children to develop their mathematical skills. For example, when younger children play with a parachute, staff ask them to move it 'up and down' and from 'side to side'.

This helps children to develop their knowledge of positional language. Children think about how they can solve problems in their play. Older children complete jigsaw puzzles on their own.

Staff support younger children. For example, they offer them ideas and suggestions about ways to turn the pieces around.Staff provide opportunities for children to develop their communication, language and literacy skills effectively.

For example, they help them to recognise the sounds at the beginning of words. Children show a positive attitude to learning and say 'spider', 'star fish' and 'scissors'. This helps them to develop their vocabulary and to recognise sounds that represent letters of the alphabet.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a good understanding of the signs of abuse and where to report concerns about children's welfare. The manager understands her responsibility to work with other agencies to promote children's safety.

She uses robust recruitment procedures to make sure that staff are suitable in their roles. Furthermore, she checks staff's ongoing suitability to work with children. Information is obtained from parents about children's dietary and medical needs.

The manager makes sure that all staff are aware of these. This helps to promote children's good health.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nexplore ways of helping children to develop their knowledge of the potential risks when they use technical devices to access the internet nuse information gathered from parents about children's prior learning and achievements to plan more precisely for children when they first start.