Treasure Island Playgroup

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children have wonderful opportunities to build on their early literacy skills.

This is illustrated as staff link favourite stories such as 'Owl Babies' to children's current experiences, in particular to support children who are settling into the pre-school or returning after the summer break. Children are imaginative, build on the story and create a garden for the owls. They listen to the views of their friends and use resources that they have brought in from home to create a wonderful rainbow scene.

Children demonstrate an understanding of personal safety. They know to wear protective glasses when using tools, for ex...ample. Children focus intently.

They carefully turn the handle of a mechanical drill and develop their fine manipulative skills. For example, they use additional tools to twist screws into the holes they make. Outside, children make their way over apparatus and safely negotiate space around them.

Staff support children's communication and social skills highly effectively. For example, they follow children's interest in role play at the 'hairdressers' and engage them in discussions about the world around them. Children are motivated and ready to learn.

They suggest hair colours and various styles, and use mathematical language such as 'longer' and 'shorter'.

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

Children understand how to keep themselves safe and well. They independently decide when they need to wash their hands, for example, after activities and playing outside.

Water is easily accessible for all children, indoors and outdoors, and children are encouraged to develop their awareness of what to do when they are thirsty. Staff use opportunities such as lunchtime to help children develop good eating habits. For instance, children complete a healthy eating chart and are proud to share this with their parents.

Children are keen to clean their teeth after eating and show an understanding of oral hygiene.The key-person system works very effectively to involve parents in their children's care and learning from the outset. Parents are highly complimentary about the provision and the progress their children make.

They comment positively on the updates they receive on their children's development and how they value the ideas staff share with them to help support continued learning at home.Staff have high expectations for all children. They shape the environment to build on children's current interests and provide a curriculum that supports their individual learning needs.

However, on occasion, staff are so focused on activities with individual children that they miss opportunities to engage other children who show a keen interest to join in.Children's emotional well-being and personal development are at the heart of the daily activities. This is illustrated as they problem-solve and persevere at tasks, such as making sandcastles and flags and talking about shape and size.

Children have strong relationships with the nurturing staff team and they enjoy a wide range of interesting activities alongside their friends.The manager and the provider recognise the setting's strengths and identify areas for development. This helps to improve children's outcomes.

However, they have not ensured that all committee members have completed the procedures for suitability checks as required by Ofsted. This is a breach in legal requirements. However, the risk is minimised as all committee members complete Disclosure and Barring Service checks and do not have unsupervised or direct contact with children.

Staff have good opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills. For example, following staff training, children benefit from further learning opportunities that support their speech and language development. However, the manager does not monitor staff performance precisely enough to identify where further support is needed, to ensure all staff deliver teaching at the highest levels.

Children have many opportunities to develop an understanding of their local community. This is demonstrated well as children go on outings to the local shops and walks to the nearby woods. Staff invite visitors into the setting to support children's awareness of how to care for the natural world.

Staff work closely with other professionals involved in children's care. They provide tailored learning plans that help to close any identified gaps in children's development. All children make good progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who speak English as an additional language and those who are in receipt of funded early education.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff are very clear about their role in protecting children from harm. They demonstrate a secure knowledge of the procedures to follow in the event of a concern about a child's welfare.

The manager deploys staff well and ensures that children play in safe environments. Staff are aware of the potential risks to children as they play and they take steps to minimise these. They attend quickly to any accidents children have, maintain records, and inform parents.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date provide Ofsted with the information needed to check the suitability of all committee members.27/10/2019 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen arrangements for the monitoring and coaching of staff to focus more closely on raising the quality of teaching to the highest levels. This is with particular reference to ensuring staff are vigilant to the individual needs of all children around them and use all opportunities to engage them in activities, in particular those quieter children.

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