Rusper Playgroup

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happy and eager.

They settle quickly to start their day at the playgroup. They are confident as they seek out their friends to discuss their play ideas and negotiate what they want to do. Staff know their key children very well and use this knowledge to plan experiences and activities to support their learning and development.

Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and engage independently in self-chosen challenges. For example, children select from a variety of small tools to work out how to insert different-sized nuts and bolts to fix a toy wooden bus. They talk to their friends to identi...fy the correct tools for the task and, with precision, they show good fine motor skills to achieve what they set out to do.

Children use good levels of language to share their ideas and use recall to talk about what they are currently learning. For instance, they explain that they are learning about their feelings. Staff support children to use descriptive language to provide examples of what makes them feel happy, calm, cross and scared.

Children are making connections in their learning and provide examples of what they can do to help themselves when they are feeling a certain way. One child commented, 'If I am hot and stressed, I need to drink water and have a rest.' This demonstrates that children are learning how to take care of their own well-being.

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

The manager and staff are reflective practitioners. They recognise the lasting impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has on children's learning and development. They use this knowledge to plan a curriculum that prioritises what children need to learn.

The manager and staff use story times to expose children to new language, as well as to explore concepts around 'feelings' to help build children's emotional resilience.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive precise, targeted intervention. The manager ensures inclusion funding provides additional support to implement strategies to help children with SEND make good progress.

Furthermore, staff receive additional training to help improve their knowledge of SEND, which has a positive impact on their practice to benefit children.Staff make good use of the play spaces available to children. They set up a large hall with a variety of play equipment and activities that promote children's physical skills.

This allows children to practise moving their bodies in different ways, developing their dexterity and spatial awareness. However, the most able children demonstrate they have mastered skills with ease. Occasionally, staff do not take the opportunity to challenge the most able children to the highest level and build on their learning to raise their achievements even further.

Despite this, all children show they are making good progress in this area of learning.Children show good behaviour and have positive relationships with their friends. Minor altercations between children are managed swiftly by staff, although they have yet to teach children fully how to resolve issues independently.

Despite this, children demonstrate kindness and care to one another. For instance, when children ride too fast on a tandem trike causing a child to fall, they check to see if their friend is hurt and offer to help them up. Children are starting to learn about empathy and the impact their actions have on themselves and others.

Staff provide opportunities to engage children with the local community. This helps children learn about life beyond the playgroup. For example, local firefighters and the police visit the playgroup to talk to children about how they keep people safe.

This clearly has a strong impact on children, as following this visit, they pretend to be firefighters in their play. They comment that 'if there is danger, they call 999'.Staff work in partnership with parents whose children speak English as an additional language.

Staff ensure children settle into the playgroup by having recorded messages to listen to in their home language. However, they have yet to fully explore how they reduce the barriers to communication so that children can build on their language skills effectively. Despite this, children are happy, engage well and seek other ways to express themselves.

Parents' feedback highlights the positive impact the playgroup has on their children's learning and development. They comment how their children's confidence and social skills have increased through the support and encouragement of the manager and staff team.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

All staff receive training to safeguard children. They understand a wide range of signs and symptoms that may indicate children are at risk of harm. The manager and staff know how to report any concerns they may have about a child to agencies with statutory responsibilities.

Furthermore, the designated safeguarding lead understands the process to follow if an allegation is made against an individual who works with children. The premises are risk assessed daily to ensure they are safe, secure and suitable for children to play and explore.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: consider ways to further the good learning opportunities that support the most able children to reach their highest potential provide children who speak English as an additional language with even more opportunities to be able to communicate their wants and needs to fully support their emerging speech and language skills provide children with the skills to resolve minor altercations between friends independently.