Wembdon Sunshiners Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children thrive in a warm, welcoming and nurturing pre-school.

It is exceedingly well resourced to spark children's interests and encourage positive attitudes to learning. Children are happy and eager to start the day, and form extremely strong bonds with their key person, who knows them well. Staff work extremely closely with parents and health professionals.

They ensure that they consistently share detailed information, especially when children start, enabling children to settle quickly and staff to meet their individual needs exceptionally well. Staff have high expectations for every child and use this information w...ell to plan and adapt activities to meet the needs of all children, to help them progress from their individual starting points.There is excellent provision to support children's emotional well-being.

Recently, the pre-school has taken on a puppy who is in training to be an emotional support dog. Children thoroughly enjoy the small-group sessions, which have helped them immensely to build their confidence, learn responsibility and support their ability to express their feelings. Children build very high levels of self-esteem.

Staff involve them in decision-making and encourage them to make choices about their play. Children delight in seeing their creations and ideas displayed, and staff ensure they capture children's voice and opinions wholeheartedly. Children's behaviour is exemplary for their age and understanding.

Where minor conflicts and issues arise, staff are highly skilled in providing a consistent and positive approach that enables children to label their feelings and understand how their actions have affected others. Children are very kind to each other. For example, when a whiteboard marker runs out, children are quick to offer theirs and fetch a new one.

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

Staff accurately assess children's progress and provide a broad range of experiences to build on children's next steps. For example, staff explain that they are repeating an activity where children make their own dough with the eventual aim to create a dough station for independent use. Children follow instructions well and willingly engage in small tasks, such as sprinkling the flour.

They become animated as they combine the ingredients, taking turns well. Effective questioning builds on children's knowledge, for instance encouraging them to recall how the dough felt last time. Children are very respectful of each other's ideas and show great patience in taking turns.

Children solve problems well and persevere to complete tasks. For example, noticing that their tower is wobbling, they work together to create a wider base so that it does not fall. When children cannot reach the top of the tower, they confidently decide to ask a member of staff to help, for which they receive praise.

However, on occasions, staff do not use their good teaching skills to engage and excite children through storytelling. They do not always organise group times as efficiently as possible. For example, the area chosen for group times has a high ceiling and the acoustics reduce children's attention and listening skills.

Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities extremely well. They work cohesively with other professionals to plan effectively and provide targeted support, such as short one-to-one activities and the provision of specific resources to encourage sensory regulation. Staff monitor behavioural incidents highly effectively and use any additional funding extremely well to provide focused support.

There is good engagement with parents to support children who are learning English as an additional language. Staff use translators highly effectively to keep parents well informed of their children's progress. Staff are respectful of children's home language, cultures and traditions, using every opportunity to provide a rich range of experiences to help all children learn about people and communities.

Staff actively involve all parents in their children's learning. They have invited parents and children in for a cream tea to explore how children learn literacy skills through their play. This has had a great impact on bedtime reading and the loan of books from the pre-school.

Children gain very good independence, preparing them exceedingly well for school. They receive excellent support as they help to dress themselves after a nappy change. They prepare their snack, using knives safely and competently, pour their drinks and have responsibility for clearing their plate and cup away when they have finished.

The passionate and well-qualified manager is a good role model to her staff. Alongside the committee and staff, she evaluates the provision effectively to develop action plans to improve outcomes for children even further. For example, recent audits of the environment, research and training have led to the reorganisation of craft materials to encourage children to add resources and to develop their curiosity and ideas independently.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff use comprehensive risk assessments to enable children to move freely within the safe and secure premises. This includes those to protect children when staff closely supervise their interactions with the puppy.

Staff provide children with clear explanations to help them assess risk for themselves, for example when climbing large soft-play shapes. Staff use effective arrangements to ensure known and authorised adults collect children. There is excellent partnership working to ensure children remain safe.

The manager and staff have good knowledge of the responsibilities to record and store information confidentially and to report any concerns about a child to appropriate agencies. There are robust arrangements to ensure staff are suitable for their roles and to implement comprehensive policies and procedures effectively.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: review the organisation of large-group times to reduce noise levels and to encourage children to remain excited and focused in their learning.