All Saints Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this warm, friendly setting. Staff are caring towards the children and know all children very well. This helps to build strong and trusting relationships. Staff respond well to children's needs. For example, they offer cuddles when children are unsettled. Children are encouraged to be independent, such as taking off their own shoes and coat when they arrive. This helps to develop children's self-help skills. The environment is planned so that children can access their own resources. This helps children to take the lead in their own learning. From this, staff plan, organise and provide a curriculum that reflects children's interests and experiences. For example, a small-world barn is set up to encourage children to find chicks and to count eggs, in response to children's own experiences of having chicks at home.

Children make good progress in this setting. Leaders have a strong understanding of their curriculum and know what the next steps for children's learning should be. They support less-experienced members of staff in planning children's next steps well. Additional funding is spent effectively. This helps to ensure that children in need of additional help are provided with the support they need to make good progress. Children go on a range of trips into the local environment, such as to a bookshop and dance studio. This helps to further develop their knowledge and understanding of the wider world.

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

• Staff extend children's learning effectively through a range of methods. As staff read stories to the children, for example, they skilfully question children about what they have heard and what they can see in the pictures. This helps to check their understanding and develop thinking skills. For instance, when children read about a party, they are questioned about what party food they would like at their own parties, and in what order they would eat it. When children are interested in a seed-planting activity, staff extend learning by using non-fiction books to develop children's knowledge of the growing process.
• Children's particular interests are exceptionally well supported and extended through carefully thought out adaptions to the provision. For example, numbers displayed reflect children's interests in higher numbers, and children are encouraged to identify these. When children show an interest in hospitals, appropriate resources are added to the role-play area.
• Staff develop children's language skills and vocabulary effectively. They ask a range of open-ended questions that encourage children to form sentences. They question children further to extend sentences. When staff recognise that some children do not know animal names, they introduce farm animals into the provision, naming the animals, which helps to extend their vocabulary.
• Overall, children are engaged in their learning and staff provide effective support to all children. However, at times, such as when children move around the setting between activities, a few children become distracted and learning is disrupted.
• Staff ensure that children learn to take turns and share. This is effectively modelled by staff and well embedded into group sessions. For example, children are provided with a small number of instruments to use at carpet time. They are encouraged to take it in turns to use them and, when they do so, are praised by staff. Children are encouraged to solve problems between themselves, to negotiate and take turns when using resources independently. This helps to prepare children well for their move to school.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Staff keep parents well informed of their children's progress and seek their views through a variety of ways. Parents speak highly of the setting. They acknowledge the progress their children make, praise the communication with staff and value being consulted on their thoughts. In particular, parents value the support and advice staff provide and respect their knowledge and experiences.
• Leaders have a good understanding of the setting's strengths and know how they can improve it further. They talk passionately about their plans and how they liaise with parents, charities and outside providers to help achieve them. Leaders ensure that staff access safeguarding training. Staff's good knowledge and safeguarding practices help to ensure children are kept safe. While staff are provided with opportunities for professional development to further improve their skills in delivering the curriculum, methods to check that staff are applying this, and it is having the desired impact on improving outcomes for children, are not yet fully embedded.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure arrangements at transition times limit any disruption so that all children remain fully engaged in their learning
• check that staff professional development is having a positive impact on improving the quality of curriculum delivery and outcomes for children.