Abacus Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and engaged in learning. Relationships between staff and children are strong and children settle in quickly and grow in confidence. The key-person system is well implemented throughout the pre-school. For instance, children spend a significant amount of time with their key person, who supports their learning and emotional well-being and has regular communication with parents. Children learn how to keep safe during play. The management team ensures staff meet the needs of individual children well and they are proactive in identifying if children need a specific level of support. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those disadvantaged receive a high level of support from dedicated and caring staff. Pre-school remained open during the COVID-19(coronavirus) pandemic. The management team ensures the curriculum is well planned and implemented to benefit all children. For example, they recognised that during the pandemic some children had fewer opportunities to be active. Therefore, they designed the curriculum to focus on developing children's physical skills. Children who speak English as an additional language have a wealth of opportunities to hear and use their home language in their play. For example, children benefit from meaningful conversations with staff who speak their home language. Children learn to value and respect each other's differences and behave well.

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

• The management team regularly reflects on their practice and makes improvements to benefit children. They provide support and coaching for less experienced staff, to build on their skills and enhance learning experiences for children. Staff have high expectations of all children and adjust their teaching to meet the needs of all children. As a result, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as additional language, make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff focus on children's communication and language development effectively. They skilfully adjust their communication style according to children's needs, including through simple instructions or expert questioning. Children learn skills to prepare them for their next stage in learning and the move to school.
• Children enjoy participating in storytelling. They are confident, willingly engage with visitors and share their imaginative ideas. For example, older children state they have turned into dinosaurs and explain to visitors not to worry as they are vegetarians. Children learn to recognise their own names and staff encourage them to sound letters out as they play. They enjoy making marks and develop a love for practising their early writing skills. Children also benefit from learning nursery rhymes in their friends' home language.
• Staff work well with other professionals to provide appropriate support and continuity in learning for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They use additional funding successfully to support individual children's developmental needs. However, they are not as successful in developing working partnership with other settings that children attend. This means that children who attend other settings lack consistency in their learning.
• Staff encourage children to share their growing knowledge about the life cycle of living beings and extend activities to challenge children in their learning. For example, after learning about how caterpillars turn into butterflies, they encourage children to explore similarities and differences between minibeasts. Children confidently count the legs of spiders, bugs and caterpillars. They use a range of good quality toys and equipment such as tweezers to support their small motor movements.
• Staff develop an effective partnership with parents. They gather information about children's abilities when they first start and regularly review children's progress and next steps, to benefit children's learning.
• Staff are positive role models and clearly communicate to children what is expected of them. Children learn to negotiate and share with one another. They learn to be independent, including when trying to put their coats on when going outside.
• Staff encourage good hygiene procedures to help tackle the spread of infections. As a result, children learn why it is important to wash their hands regularly. Children have regular access to learn in the fresh air to support their health and well-being. Staff inspire children to keep active. Children enjoy riding on balance bikes and use a range of apparatus to support their physical skills. However, on occasions, staff do not build on children's growing understanding of healthy eating choices.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop partnerships with other settings that children attend to promote continuity in children's learning and development
• build on learning opportunities as they arise to extend children's understanding of making healthy choices.