Mini Adventures Preschool Ltd

Mini Adventures Preschool Ltd
Unique reference number (URN): 2570210
Address: Unit 6, Three Manors Retail Park, Rockingham Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16
7QE
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 18/02/2020
Registers: EYR
Registered person: Mini Adventures (Market Harborough) Ltd
Inspection report: 30 April 2026
Exceptional
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
Urgent improvement

Urgent improvement
Safeguarding standards not met
Leaders have not ensured that there is an open and positive culture around safeguarding
that adequately protects children from harm. Leaders have failed to ensure that staff have
the necessary safeguarding knowledge and understanding to keep children safe. As a
result, staff do not have a secure understanding of the possible indicators of abuse and are
not sufficiently confident in recognising or responding to concerns. In addition, leaders do
not make sure that staff are clear about how to identify and appropriately challenge unsafe
practice by colleagues. These significant weaknesses reflect poor leadership oversight and
training and leave children potentially vulnerable to harm.
How we evaluate safeguarding
When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:
Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding.
Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all
legal requirements are met.
Achievement Urgent improvement
A key focus of the setting's curriculum is to support children to develop the skills they need
for school. Leaders do not ensure that staff implement this which impacts significantly on
children's achievement. Children struggle to focus, listen or contribute to group activities due
to the noise levels and continual disruptions. Similarly, during free play when children initiate
play with others, it is frequently interrupted. Although children persevere with attempting to
use cutlery at mealtimes, the lack of support from staff means that some eventually give up
and use their hands.
Children with additional barriers to learning are not supported to participate in the activities.
All children are capable of making more progress in their learning and development and are
not supported by staff to achieve this. As a result, children are not well prepared for their
next stage in learning.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Urgent improvement
Leaders do not set appropriate expectations for children's behaviour or routines. They do
not help children to understand what is expected of them, such as taking turns in group
conversations or putting the toys away rather than discarding them on the floor. Tidy-up time
subsequently becomes a huge task, which is disorganised and hectic. A few children try and
help to tidy away the toys despite the lack of guidance from staff. This becomes almost
impossible as they struggle to establish where the toys should be stored or to find particular
toys amongst those strewn across the floor. Leaders do not ensure that staff give proper

thought to how to conclude learning activities. This negatively affects children's behaviour,
as when activities finish, they stampede across the classroom.
Staff do not provide consistent support for children with barriers to their learning, for
example children who struggle with their emotions. On some occasions, staff make sure
children have access to the resources that have been purchased specifically for supporting
children with expressing or managing feelings. At other times, they leave children to wander
and have to then manage disruptions rather than de-escalating situations before they arise.
Leaders consult with parents and carers to agree what they will spend additional funding on,
which includes supporting children's regular attendance.
Children's welfare and wellbeing Urgent improvement
Leaders and staff do not promote children's welfare. They do not consistently follow the
setting's procedures for hygiene, for example they instruct children to wash their hands in
dirty paint water and dry their hands on a dirty towel. Furthermore, staff give cutlery that has
been dropped on the floor back to the children at mealtimes. These poor practices go
unchecked by leaders, creating an unhygienic environment that places children's health and
wellbeing at unnecessary risk. In addition, children do not have daily access to outdoor
learning and instead they only access the outdoors once a week due to leaders' poor
organisation.
Staff are caring towards the children. Parents and carers comment that their children settle
quickly when they start at the setting and look forward to seeing the staff. Children with
special educational needs and/or disabilities form attachments with staff and receive comfort
when they are tired or ill. Children enjoy healthy options at mealtimes. At snack time, staff
encourage children to peel their own fruit and pour their own drinks. Staff make effective use
of additional funding to purchase resources that help children with their personal skills, such
as the transition from nappies to using a toilet.
Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement
The quality of teaching for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or
disabilities, is poor. This is because leaders checks on how well the curriculum is delivered
by staff are weak. They do not ensure that staff know what they want children to learn from
activities or how they will deliver this. Although leaders recognise that some routine activities
do not work effectively, they have not taken appropriate steps to address this. For example,
large-group activities lack focus and quickly become chaotic. As a result, the curriculum
does not support children to make progress in their learning.
Staff have undertaken training in how to support children's communication skills but are not
using the knowledge gained. They have limited conversations with children and when they
do converse they often ask numerous questions without pause, therefore not giving children
the opportunities to practise their communication skills.
Other aspects of the curriculum are also ineffective. For example, staff do not extend
children's prior knowledge, such as when talking about mathematical concepts. During circle
time, staff ask children to hold up the correct number of fingers to represent a number, but
then hold up the incorrect number of fingers themselves. As a result, children are left

confused about basic number concepts and develop insecure early mathematical
understanding.
Inclusion Urgent improvement
Leaders are not ambitious for children, including for those with special educational needs
and/or disabilities. Small achievements are often seen as significant, with staff failing to
recognise what more children could be capable of with better support. In addition, leaders
do not make sure that staff accurately assess children's needs well enough. As a result, staff
are overly focused on the elements of children's development that have been achieved,
while failing to recognise and prioritise where extra support is needed.
Leaders use additional funding to provide one-to-one support for children to include them
within the setting, however this support is ineffective. Leaders have not checked that staff
provide effective individual support. Because of this, staff take on a supervisory role and
follow children around and do not engage them in purposeful learning and play. For children
who need support to socialise with others, this hinders their progress.
While staff have regular communication with parents and carers about children's needs, they
do not share this information well enough to ensure that children are given appropriate
support throughout the session. For example, when it is known that some children are upset
as they arrive staff do not plan ahead to help them settle calmly. Instead, they only respond
after children have already become distressed. Children struggle to manage their emotions
which can disrupt others play. Leaders do understand the importance of working in
partnership with parents, carers and other professionals to review children's needs.
Leadership and governance Urgent improvement
Leaders do not maintain oversight of the setting. As a result, several breaches of the
requirements were identified at this inspection. They do not follow the setting's procedures
when there are concerns about children's safety. Staff, including those in leadership
positions, do not have sufficient understanding of the procedures to follow in the event of an
allegation against a colleague. Additionally, staff report that their heavy workload is affecting
their ability to have the time to reflect on practice.
Leaders' assessment of staff interactions is at times overly generous and fails to recognise
the significant weaknesses in teaching, which hinders all children's learning, including those
with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Supervision for staff, although regular, is
ineffective. Leaders lack the confidence and professional clarity to provide constructive
feedback for staff. This means that difficult conversations are avoided. This allows
underperformance to persist unchecked.
While staff attend training, leaders do not ensure they use this learning to positively impact
on the quality of the provision. In addition, a lack of clarity regarding roles and
responsibilities means that without frequent, direct guidance, staff are uncertain about how
to manage routines and activities.
Leaders place importance on building relationships with parents and carers. Leaders share
information at drop off and hold regular meetings to update parents on their child's

development. Parents comment that they find this information useful as well as the
reminders about forthcoming activities.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Leaders do not have sufficient oversight of the setting and there are breaches of the early
years foundation stage statutory requirements that impact on children's safety, welfare and
learning and development. Leaders do not ensure that staff have the knowledge and
understanding to identify and manage safeguarding concerns. Children's hygiene is not
effectively promoted and they do not have daily access to outdoor learning. Furthermore,
leaders do not monitor the implementation of the curriculum to ensure that staff have the
necessary knowledge and skills and that it is supportive of children's learning and
development. Leaders' curriculum lacks ambition for all children.
Throughout the day, activities quickly become chaotic. During large-group activities, such as
circle time, staff do not manage children's responses to questions and therefore no child can
be heard. Children have frequent opportunities for free play during the daily routine. During
these times, too often children continually wander about picking up toys and discarding
them, and are not engaged in purposeful play or learning. The environment is noisy,
cluttered and not conducive to children's learning. Many children go unnoticed by staff,
including those with barriers to their learning, and therefore receive little or no interaction
from staff.
During staff-led activities, such as painting, children do not receive any guidance from staff
on how to use the tools. Children work in silence as they create their own artwork. They
show considerable patience waiting for staff to acknowledge them and to respond to their
request for additional resources. Although staff identify those children that need additional
support, their needs are not provided for within the curriculum or through support from staff.
Staff use a visual timetable to help children to understand the routine, however the
confusing presentation of this means that this is not effective.
Next steps
The provider is not meeting the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and Ofsted
intends to take enforcement action.

We will issue a Welfare Requirements Notice requiring the provider to have taken the
following actions by the assigned date:
Action Completion Date
ensure that outdoor activities are planned and taken on
a daily basis to promote children's good health and their
learning and development
01/05/2026
ensure that all staff are clear on the procedure to follow
in the event of an allegation being made against a
member of staff to ensure children's safety
14/05/2026
ensure that all staff are alert to any issues of concern in
a child's life at home or elsewhere and understand the
procedures to follow to safeguard children within the
setting
14/05/2026
promote the good health of children by ensuring there
are appropriate hygiene routines that are consistently
applied
14/05/2026
support staff to improve their teaching so that
consistently high-quality interactions are embedded to
help children to make the best possible progress in their
learning
25/06/2026
To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage the provider must take the
following actions by the assigned date:
Action Completion Date
ensure that the curriculum is ambitious for all children,
including those with special educational needs and/or
disabilities
25/06/2026
ensure that staff understand what it is they want
children to learn from each activity, and how they will
support this to promote children's learning and
development
25/06/2026
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with the nominated individual, the manager and staff during the
inspection.

Inspector:
Justine Ellaway
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): 2570210
Address:
Unit 6, Three Manors Retail Park
Rockingham Road
Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 7QE
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 18/02/2020
Registered person: Mini Adventures (Market Harborough) Ltd
Register(s): EYR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 15:30
Local authority: Leicestershire
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 30 April 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the
quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The
registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for
children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

2 to 4
Total number of places
39
Our grades explained
Exceptional
Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.
Strong standard
The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of
them.
Expected standard
The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are
following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional
standards expected of them.
Needs attention
The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary
improvements.
Urgent improvement
The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of
education and/or care.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects
services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects
and regulates services that care for children and young people.
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