Thornton Playgroup

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents

This provision is good • Management and staff work well together as a team and create a welcoming environment where children feel happy, safe and settled. • The manager and staff reflect on their practice and encourage parents and children to participate in this process. They identify what works well and develop an action plan to address identified areas for improvement promptly.

• Partnerships with parents are effective. Staff successfully help parents to understand how they can support their child's learning at home. They keep parents well informed about their children's progress and next steps in learning.

Parents are happy with the care that their children receive. •... The manager and staff use effective methods to observe and assess children's progress. They accurately monitor progress and use the information they gather to plan activities to close gaps in learning.

All children make good progress from their starting points. • Staff provide a range of activities that teach children to value people's differences and similarities. For example, they help children to learn about festivals from a number of religions.

• Occasionally, staff automatically do a task for children that they are capable of doing themselves. • Managers have identified that staff would benefit from further training. The programme for staff's professional development is not sharply focused on raising the quality of their teaching to the highest levels, in order to help better meet the needs of children.