St Paul’s Community Playschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settled at this setting.

Staff warmly welcome children on arrival and take time to chat to them and their families. Staff are caring and supportive. They give younger children hugs and reassurance and guide older children as they learn new skills.

As a result, children form secure attachments with staff and feel safe in their care.Staff implement a well-planned curriculum that is built on children's needs and interests. The environment is carefully organised so that children can independently access resources and lead their own play.

Children are eager to explore and learn. Younger child...ren enjoy pretending to run a restaurant and making coffee with fresh herbs. Older children show great concentration when exploring an interactive globe as they learn about countries and different languages.

Children have plenty of opportunities to practise their fine and gross motor skills. Older children skilfully use scissors to cut, and younger children enjoy manipulating play dough. Children develop their coordination as they balance on beams and manoeuvre pedal cars in the garden.

Staff are positive role models and show children the importance of being kind to each other. Children behave well and learn to share and take turns. Staff praise children's efforts and achievements.

This helps to develop children's self-esteem.

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

Staff know children well. They use ongoing assessments to identify any gaps in children's development and to provide a curriculum tailored to their needs.

Staff work in partnership with parents and carers and other professionals to ensure that all children get the right support. As a result, all children make progress from their starting points in development.Staff implement golden rules that clearly set out their expectations for children's behaviour.

Older children independently use sand timers to negotiate turn-taking. They work well as a team, develop their social skills and listen to other views. For example, children show each other solutions for how to make the water flow quickly through a large dropper.

Staff teach children about the importance of following good hygiene routines and the benefits of healthy habits. Children wash their hands on arrival and after time outdoors without prompting. They enjoy healthy snacks, energetic play and fresh air daily.

Children show good independence skills throughout the day, such as when managing their personal needs or selecting resources. They hang up their coats and bags, cut fruit and pour their own drinks.Children learn about other peoples' cultures from around the world.

Staff provide a range of traditional clothes, and children learn what they are called, such as the Nigerian kufi.Staff support children's communication and language skills. They engage children in conversations about their play ideas and introduce new vocabulary.

Children enjoy stories and sing along to familiar songs and rhymes.Staff introduce the mathematical concept of weight, using vocabulary such as 'heavier' and 'lighter', while children fill balancing scales with pasta. Children show good problem-solving skills by adding and removing pasta to balance the scales.

However, staff do not always make use of the available resources and opportunities to further support children's recognition of numbers or counting.Staff use visual aids and songs to help children to understand and follow routines. However, at times, staff do not use these consistently.

This impacts on younger children's participation during key times such as snack and tidy-up time.Parents are very complimentary about staff and the care their children receive. They comment on how caring, warm and supportive the team is.

Parents feel well informed about their children's progress and receive ideas for how they can support their learning at home. For example, staff send home 'nursery rhymes packs' so children can practise the words and actions to songs they learn at the setting.Staff receive support and supervision from leaders and their colleagues.

They attend training, which helps them to improve their practice. For example, they have introduced a 'calm corner' and new sensory resources following some recent training they completed. This has helped them to make changes that promote children's emotional well-being further.

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 further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to help children to understand and follow routines, such as by consistently using the available visual aids, in order to maximise children's learning opportunities provide more opportunities for children to extend their counting and understanding of number sequences as they play.