Abbotskerswell Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff have a clear vision of what they want children to learn and achieve. Children enjoy a well-sequenced curriculum that builds on their skills and knowledge over time. Children are settled and happy. They show good levels of concentration in their chosen activities and enjoy playing alongside staff and their peers. Staff have established good relationships with the children. They are nurturing and support learning well. Children show high levels of confidence and independence. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), benefit from rich, varied learning experiences that develop their curiosity. Children feel safe and seek staff out for comfort or assistance when needed.

Children enjoy a wide range of learning experiences. They enthusiastically play indoors and outdoors. They are eager to learn and they show resilience when faced with challenges in their play. It is clear that children feel valued. Their efforts are praised and encouraged, and their good behaviour is celebrated. Children who have recently joined the setting are well supported. Staff help them with building friendships and understanding the daily routines.

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

• Staff help children to gain good literacy skills. Children enjoy listening to stories, songs and rhymes. They enthusiastically interact with books, pointing out things of interest in illustrations and predicting what will happen next in a story.
• The manager oversees effective assessments of children's progress and ensures that staff introduce resources based on children's learning needs. Staff identify if there are any gaps in learning and are swift to seek support from outside agencies if a child is not making expected progress. They work effectively with parents and enable them to access the help needed to support their children to progress, such as speech and language support.
• Children listen well to staff and follow instructions. Staff understand that children sometimes struggle to manage their feelings and behaviour, and they support all children effectively with developing strategies for this. For example, if children are finding it difficult to share, staff play alongside the children, supporting and guiding them in sharing and taking turns.
• Children are supported to develop active lifestyles. They play outside daily and take part in weekly yoga sessions. They also enjoy using a range of equipment that supports their developing muscle control, balance and coordination.
• For the most part, staff support children's growing independence well. However, on occasions, they do not teach children to manage more of their own care needs effectively. For example, when children are playing outside, staff do not teach them strategies to protect themselves from the hot sun.
• Staff communicate with parents daily. They talk to parents at drop-off times and when they collect their children. These times are beneficial for building effective relationships between the pre-school and families. Staff share general information about the children's day.
• Staff support children to develop their mathematical skills. Children learn about shapes, numbers and capacity as they play. Children enjoy making numerals from play dough cutters and then correctly sequencing the numbers in order from one to 10.
• Staff support children to build on what they already know and can do. For example, children have been learning about caterpillars and know that they eat leaves. Children enjoy observing the caterpillars as they change. They animatedly describe the stripes and long hairs they can see on them. Staff encourage descriptive language and model it in their own descriptions of the creatures.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop teaching practices to best support children to manage more of their own care needs.