Mini Mice Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children demonstrate they feel secure and confident. They enjoy sharing their thoughts and experiences with visitors.

For example, children confidently talk about their friends and staff they like to play with. They share photos from home about their interests and the people who are special to them. This helps children to build relationships and to feel safe.

Leaders design their curriculum with independence, inspiration and individuality at its heart. This has some success to promote children's independence. For example, in the morning session, children unpack their snack on arrival and put it in a basket with their name... tag on top.

This also helps children to recognise their name. Children have autonomy to choose their snack time and prepare their own food. Staff sensitively support children who need more help to chop or peel their fruit.

This helps some children to make progress in some aspects of the curriculum. However, there are weaknesses in the delivery of the curriculum. Leaders do not ensure the curriculum is applied consistently for all children.

This inconsistency means that some children are not fully supported to make the progress they are capable of. For example, children who attend in the afternoon do not experience the well-planned and broad range of activities offered in the morning session, such as trips off the premises. At times, they are not engaged well and lack stimulation, so they become unsettled and restless.

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

Although leaders have designed an ambitious curriculum, they do not ensure that staff deliver it successfully throughout the day to ensure children are supported to make good progress consistently. For example, during the afternoon sessions, staff pack away many of the resources. This means children have limited choices about their learning and lack focus.

The remaining resources do not capture their interest, and children do not have enough opportunities to be creative and imaginative. In addition, staff expect children to remain in one place for too long during adult-led activities. During these times, some children become disengaged and do not demonstrate positive attitudes to learning, such as high levels of curiosity and enjoyment.

Leaders do not ensure that staff always organise changes in routine well so that children fully benefit from the learning opportunities offered. For example, children listen to the story 'Owl Babies'. They are excited by the story and it is well known to them.

However, other children arrive back from a walk during story time and this interrupts children's concentration. They become distracted, and some children miss key opportunities to develop their early literacy skills.During the morning session, staff use their knowledge gained through recent training to help children benefit from stretching and breathing techniques.

These help children to tune in to how they are feeling, support their emotional well-being and help them understand how to regulate their bodies. For example, children blow on their hot chocolate to develop breathing exercises. They enjoy doing this, and the activity promotes children's communication and language and personal, social and emotional development.

Overall, children behave well even during times where they have to wait for prolonged periods, such as preparation for lunch.Staff help children to use new vocabulary in their play. For example, children learn vocabulary such as 'nocturnal'.

They learn about owls and their sleeping habits. Children reflect on their previous learning and remember that owls are nocturnal. During the morning, children make their own play dough.

They roll short and long sausages, and make them into 'snails'. Children use the play dough in their role play. They demonstrate good imaginative skills when they pretend to make a giant chocolate cake and share it with friends.

Staff work with parents well. They complete visits to the home to build a strong bond with parents. Staff share any assessments they make with parents that may identify children who are not on track in their learning.

Leaders work well with other professionals and are quick to seek support, which enables children to receive timely intervention where needed. However, the weaknesses in the delivery of the curriculum mean that children do not always have the support they need to make the best possible progress in their learning.Staff take children on walks in the community during some sessions.

Children learn how to cross a road safely when they walk together to a community space in the trees. They enjoy building dens and spotting birds and squirrels. Staff provide props to help children identify the birds.

However, they sometimes fail to use these effectively to help children gain more knowledge about their natural world. Despite this, children who attend these sessions return inspired about the outdoors and this promotes their learning and development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date consider the individual needs, interests, and development of each child in their care and use this information to plan broad, challenging, and enjoyable experiences for all children that support them to make the progress they are capable of in all areas of learning and development 31/01/2025 provide training and support for staff to enable them to deliver well-planned, high-quality learning experiences consistently that provide all children with the learning experiences they need to make good progress across the seven areas of learning.21/02/2025 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: norganise the daily routines more effectively to ensure a smoother transition between changes in activities so that children are not kept waiting too long and remain engaged and motivated.