West End Play Group

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children flourish and have a thirst for learning. They thrive on the superb support given for their emotional development. This gives children a strong foundation for all their future learning.

Children are excited to attend and quickly settle into activities of their choice. They clearly demonstrate very close bonds with their key person and great friendships with their peers. Children have lots of fun throughout the day, for example role play in the dinosaur world, giving their friends rides on bicycles and moulding play dough together.

Children solve problems and work exceptionally well as a team to answer qu...estions such as 'I wonder why?' and 'How does that happen?'. Children demonstrate that they feel extremely safe and cared for by fully engaging with all activities, adults and their peers. Huge smiles, squeals of glee and shouts of wonder can be seen and heard throughout the day.

Staff have high expectations for all children. They know all children extremely well and design exciting and engaging activities to captivate their interest. Staff skilfully include every child in activities by enticing them in with thought-provoking stories.

For example, children search for real birds to explore the natural world. They find bird books to investigate which birds visit their pond. Staff encourage children's natural inquisitive nature and use questioning extremely well to extend and deepen their understanding and language.

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

Children's speech and language skills are superbly supported by every member of staff. Staff speak extremely clearly, ask children precise and well-considered questions and give them ample time to consider a response. Staff consistently extend children's language, using words such as 'juicy', 'crunchy', 'sweetness' and 'flesh' when discussing their lunch.

Children's use of vocabulary is extensive and encouraged at every opportunity. For example, children use words such as 'prehistoric' and 'extinct', as they look for favourite books.The passionate, ambitious and dedicated staff team has a strong and clear vision for the pre-school.

Staff provide an extensive curriculum designed to ignite the curiosity and wonder of all children. For example, children excitedly mix lard and bird seed, shouting 'Look! What's happening?'. Children are inspired to learn and make exceptional progress in their development.

Children share stories while smiling and clapping in excitement together. They hug each other, hold hands and invite each other into their games. As a result, children have high levels of self-esteem and fully immerse themselves in play, to achieve their full learning potential.

Staff provide excellent opportunities for children to learn about the world around them. Children regularly go for walks in the local area, purchase their own snack items from the local shop and learn about road safety. Parents come in to speak with the children about different occupations, including farming, classic car restoring and paramedics.

The manager and staff recognise the impact the pandemic has had on children's emotions and have successfully developed ways to support them. Staff consider the language of feelings throughout the day, for example by making different facial emotions, drawing them and discussing what makes them happy. Small-group sessions help children explore feelings and build their confidence, resilience and social skills.

Children demonstrate exemplary behaviour and show great respect and care for each other.The manager provides highly effective professional development for all staff. She utilises their skills and knowledge in the best way to support all children.

Staff feel valued and part of a team. Every child receives the best possible care for them to thrive.Highly effective partnerships with parents and professionals allow for great consistency in each child's learning and development.

Parents are extremely happy with the care provided for their children. They comment that 'the staff here genuinely care so much about each of the children' and 'they strive to make a difference'.Children have wonderful opportunities to learn about the diverse world they live in.

The staff help children to learn about festivals and events that are important to them and their friends. For instance, staff learn key words in children's home language as they play games and sing songs together. Children gain an excellent understanding of the differences and similarities in people's ideas and beliefs.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff receive a rigorous safeguarding training programme. They have detailed knowledge of the signs and symptoms which indicate a child is at risk of harm, including the risk of radicalisation and female genital mutilation.

Staff are proactive in taking action to keep children from harm. The manager ensures that policies, records and documents that help to safeguard children are regularly updated and are exceptionally thorough. These comprehensive procedures enable staff to know how to identity and report concerns swiftly, to keep children safe.