Sunbeams Pre-school

Children’s own interests shape the learning at Sunbeams Pre-school, with Planning in the moment giving them room to investigate while practitioners decide when to join in and extend an idea. Parent involvement has a practical role, too: this Radford Semele preschool runs through a volunteer parent committee. Families can help shape its running as well as discuss their own child’s development.

At its 17 February 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Sunbeams Outstanding and found safeguarding effective. That judgement belongs to the inspected provision at that date. The current approach combines a key person for each child, termly parent meetings and speech and language support through Time to Talk, a Warwickshire strategy involving practitioner training and early intervention.

Sunbeams accepts children from two and a half years old and has 40 places in total. Attendance choices include a morning, a funded day ending after lunch and a full day combining funded and private hours, alongside unfunded care.

Learning and Activities

Planning in the moment starts with what children want to explore. Practitioners balance their involvement with children’s freedom to investigate, rather than directing every step. For families, the important distinction is that child choice forms part of the teaching approach: an interest can become the starting point for further learning.

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care. In daily terms, this means learning through play and interaction across areas such as communication, physical development and early mathematical understanding. Sunbeams’ child-led approach sits alongside that framework.

In February 2022, a pretend soup activity brought together fruit, vegetables, letter cards and a rhyme. Children took turns matching initial sounds to ingredients. It was a concrete way to connect listening, speaking and early reading skills, with a shared game giving children a reason to participate.

Story sessions at that time involved discussing authors, remembering familiar phrases and recognising rhyme. Children also brought songs from home and taught them to staff. That made their existing experiences useful material for learning, rather than leaving home and preschool as separate worlds.

An interest in police and firefighters supplied another February 2022 example. Children examined shapes in a costume badge, drew what they saw and added their names. A single interest connected imaginative play, observation and mark-making. The detail matters more than a list of activities: it shows how practitioners used children’s ideas to connect different areas of learning.

Outdoor and Community Life

In February 2022, children spent time being physically active outdoors each day. Construction blocks provided a shared challenge as children worked together on a bridge. Practitioners used questions to encourage children to work through problems, giving conversation a purpose within play.

Choice also features in Sunbeams’ current work on British values. Children can select activities according to their interests, while group discussions and visual reminders help explain rules. These are everyday opportunities to practise making decisions and understanding how individual choices affect other people.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who oversees their learning and next steps. The team matches children with practitioners, and the key person works with parents to understand the child’s needs and interests. This gives families a particular member of staff with responsibility for following their child’s development.

Termly meetings provide a regular point for that conversation. Parent evening appointments are also organised by groups, including Bumblebee Group and Dragonfly Group. These are useful communication structures: routine discussion has a place alongside contact about an individual concern or new interest.

In February 2022, staff met before children’s day began to discuss their key children’s interests and possible next steps. Assessments were shared with parents, and contact with outside services required parental permission. Those arrangements connected what practitioners observed with the support a child received.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Time to Talk supports speech, language and communication through practitioner development, early intervention and spaces designed to encourage communication. It provides a specific mechanism for supporting this area of development, rather than a general promise about individual attention.

At the February 2022 inspection, Ofsted found that children made rapid progress, received additional support through liaison with outside agencies where needed, and benefited from effective safeguarding arrangements. Current child protection arrangements include regular staff training, a safeguarding lead and deputy, and supervision of volunteers.

In February 2022, children practised managing their own hygiene and personal needs, discussed emotions and helped one another during play. Staff also used snack time to talk about food and explore shapes with pieces of fruit. Independence and conversation were part of ordinary routines, giving children opportunities to practise skills beyond organised group activities.

Sessions and Attendance

Sunbeams is on School Lane, Radford Semele, Leamington Spa, CV31 1TQ. It opens Monday to Friday, from 8.30am to 3.30pm, with its calendar aligned to Radford Semele Primary school, including teacher training days.

The morning pattern runs from 8.30am to 11.30am for the 15-hour funded offer; an unfunded morning option is also sold. Children using the 30-hour funded offer can attend from 8.30am to 1.30pm, with additional private hours from 1.30pm to 3.30pm. A private extension from 11.30am to noon is another option.

Full day care runs from 8.30am to 3.30pm. For children on the 30-hour funded offer, it combines five funded hours with paid time; a wholly unfunded full day is also offered. The choice therefore reaches beyond one fixed length of day, but the funding conditions matter when matching a pattern to family needs.

Applications can be returned by email or post, and families can contact the preschool by telephone or email. Sunbeams works closely with Radford Semele Primary school and uses some of its facilities, while remaining independent of it. Attendance does not guarantee a school place; families still use the local authority admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Sunbeams accepts Fund2help 2 year funding, The working parent 2 year funding, 15 hours universal funding and the extended 30 hour funding. Funded provision follows a term-time model. Eligibility depends on the relevant entitlement, and the preschool requires the extended-funding code in the term before funding is due to begin.

Parents supply a packed lunch when children stay until 1.30pm or 3.30pm, including on the funded attendance pattern. Additional private hours are charged separately. Families should obtain a current written quotation setting out the cost of their chosen arrangement.

• Funding shapes the day. The 8.30am to 1.30pm pattern is for the 30-hour funded offer, while longer attendance adds private hours. Match the funded and paid portions to the hours your family needs.
• A school-linked calendar. Sunbeams follows Radford Semele Primary school’s calendar, including teacher training days. This makes the closure pattern an important part of planning care around work.
• Settling into child-led play. Show-arounds follow an application and take place by appointment, usually around 3.30pm after the children’s day. Use that visit to ask how the key person will support your child’s first sessions.
• Parents help run the preschool. The volunteer committee manages the preschool and organises fundraising. Consider whether you would like to contribute to that work alongside your child’s attendance.

Sunbeams suits families seeking child-led preschool learning with a clear key person relationship and opportunities to take part in the setting’s management. Planning in the moment and Time to Talk give its approach substance, while the February 2022 Outstanding judgement provides a dated quality assessment.

Its attendance choices suit both families wanting morning sessions and those needing full day care until 3.30pm or the funded day ending at 1.30pm. The practical decision is how the funding conditions, paid extensions and school-linked calendar fit together for your household.