Abberley Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are content and happy at this welcoming setting. They form secure relationships with the kind and caring staff team. Staff gather a range of information from parents about children's care needs and prior learning during their settling in sessions. They use this information to plan a meaningful curriculum around children's interests and developmental needs. All children make good progress in their learning and development.

Children behave well. They understand the pre-schools rules and display good sitting, looking and listening skills during group activities, such as morning circle time. Children are confident to answer staffs' questions and accurately recall the days of the week. Staff support children's early counting skills. They help them to recognise numbers as children find the date from the board. Children benefit from regular opportunities to be physically active and play outdoors in the fresh air. They work with staff to build tall towers. Children are proud of their achievements. They use mathematical language, such as 'tall' to describe the size of the tower. Staff support children to be independent from an early age. Young children learn to pour their own drink and older children manage their personal care. Staff provide children with unique experiences that promote their understanding of the world and how to care for living things. For example, the link school reception class join the pre-school children to attend a visit from the 'animal man'. Children are very excited and listen attentively as he talks to them about the insects and birds. Some children enjoy close up experiences and opportunities to handle the creatures.

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

• Leaders and managers have a good understanding of their designated roles and responsibilities. They know what the pre-school does well and identify areas for further development. The manager has some procedures in place to monitor the quality of practice. For example, she meets with staff to discuss what they do well and to identify training needs. However, the manager is yet to precisely target training to ensure it is specific to staffs' individual needs to raise the quality of teaching to the highest level. That said, staff are happy in their roles and comment on the good levels of support they receive from the management team for their well-being.
• Staff generally know the children well and identify ways to support their learning and aid their progress. Each child is allocated a key person on induction, and parents are aware of who these are. However, the key person system is not always fully effective. On occasions, some children's learning is not supported as well as it could be because their key person is absent or does not work the days they attend. This means children do not always have an identified person to oversee their care, learning and development, in the absence of their own key person.
• Staff position themselves around the indoor and outdoor environment to ensure children are adequately supervised at all times. They remind children of how to keep themselves safe. For example, to use their indoor walking feet. However, staff are yet to broaden children's awareness of personal safety. They do not provide children with a wide enough range of experiences to develop their understanding of when they might be at risk when using digital technology or embed their understanding of how to keep safe in the sun.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress from their starting points. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to provide children with SEND targeted support plans to help them to make the best possible progress. Any additional funding the pre-school receives is used to support children's individual needs.
• Staff form effective partnerships with local schools that children will attend. They invite teachers into the pre-school to meet children in their own surroundings and share information about children's individual learning needs. This supports children's emotional wellbeing, helping them to build relationships with their new teacher and easing anxieties about the upcoming changes
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff keep parents well informed about their children's learning and time at the pre-school. They speak to them at drop off and collection times and add photographs and comments to children's online learning journals. Parents are very happy with the service the pre-school provides. They state staff are very supportive and offer them lots of guidance, such as behaviour management strategies, to help promote consistency between the pre-school and home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance performance management to precisely identify areas for staff development to raise the quality of teaching to an outstanding level
• strengthen the key person arrangements to fully support children's individual needs at all times and help them to make the best possible progress in their learning and development
• provide children with more experiences to help them to gain an effective understanding of how to keep themselves safe in the sun and when they might be at risk when using digital technology.