All Nations Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff warmly welcome children and their families on arrival. They support children to develop a positive attitude to their learning and help them to manage their feelings, including developing resilience to setbacks. Staff support children to develop their independence and take responsibility. Children pour their own drinks and help to tidy away the resources. Staff encourage children to manipulate dough to strengthen small muscles, and provide a range of activities to encourage children's mark making. For example, children paint colourful pictures at the painting easels. They use their developing imaginations and language to describe their 'monster truck' and 'exploding meteor', demonstrating pride in their achievements.

Staff support children to develop their mathematical knowledge. They encourage children to count and to recognise written numerals during hopscotch games. Additionally, staff introduce simple calculation concepts as children sing songs, such as 'Five Little Speckled Frogs'. Older children demonstrate their understanding. They know that if there are five frogs and one is taken away that there are four frogs left. Staff encourage children to refine their balancing and coordination skills as they walk across the stepping stones and use the foam 'walking feet'. Children's hand-eye and coordination skills are also developed as they thread coloured beads onto wooden rods.

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

• The experienced manager and staff work hard to create a welcoming environment in this pack-away setting. Staff supervision is appropriately used to identify ongoing professional development opportunities. For example, staff have attended training and workshops to help them support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and to enhance children's communication and language.
• The manager and staff have developed a curriculum to cover all areas of a child's development, building on what children know and can do. They carefully consider the experiences each child brings to the pre-school to enhance the opportunities that are available to them. For example, they provide additional sports sessions to support children's physical development. Overall, the quality of teaching is good. However, on occasions, some staff do not promote planned learning intentions or use spontaneous opportunities to further extend children's development.
• Staff know the children well and provide them with a range of activities to enhance their development. For example, children plant strawberries and wild flowers to learn how food and plants grow. However, on occasions rigid routines prevent children from continuing to participate in the activities they are enjoying.
• This includes their access to the outdoor area. For example, children are asked to stop what they are doing to take part in other group activities and to have their snack.
• Staff support children, including those who speak English as a second language, to develop their communication and language skills. They encourage children to sing familiar rhymes. Children laugh when they pretend that a spider is sitting on their nose. Staff share stories with the children. Older children listen to a story about a ladybird. They demonstrate their understanding that some animals are 'huge' and 'big' compared to the 'small' ladybird.
• Staff successfully support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and pride themselves on the support they give to families. Staff provide children with one-to-one support and work with other professionals. Staff also support children who receive early years pupil premium. Additional funding has been used to fund extra sessions and to enable children to take part in initiatives, such as the 'duck hatching project'.
• Staff provide a range of experiences that broadens children's understanding of the community and the role of others. Children walk to a local wild flower area and purchase food items from a local shop. Visitors are welcomed into the pre-school. Children learn about the role of the vet and a visit from a mental health nurse has supported children to understand different emotions and how these can be managed.
• Parents praise the good-quality care and education their children receive. Flexible settling-in sessions help to build relationships prior to the children starting the pre-school. Parents receive daily verbal feedback on their child's day and have access to written information and photos about their child's development through an online platform. Additionally, parents are welcomed to regular stay-and-play sessions with their children and staff encourage them to take home books to share with their children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to promote specific learning intentions more effectively during planned activities, and use every opportunity to extend children's learning during spontaneous activities
• review the organisation of planned routines to enable children to develop and complete the activities they are enjoying, including making more effective use of the outdoor environment to support children who prefer to learn outside.