Ascot and Cranbourne Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children love spending time in the highly nurturing home-from-home pre-school. They arrive excited to play and full of enthusiasm for their day. Children feel completely confident, safe, and secure. They develop high levels of self-esteem and know that they are cherished by staff, who celebrate each child's uniqueness.

Children benefit from consistently high expectations from staff. For example, staff encourage them to keep trying when learning to manage their personal needs. They give precise instructions and children persevere, such as when learning how to independently put on their coats and zip it up. Younger children remember to 'stand by the hood' and staff gently intervene when children need help. Children demonstrate excellent independence skills in relation to their age.

Children's literacy skills are supported tremendously well. Children are extremely focused and excited as they practise their phonic letter sounds. For example, they rise to challenges with pride, putting together three letter words using the sounds. They recognise the sounds letters represent, in preparation for reading and writing.

Children develop an excellent understanding of the importance of good health and physical skills. For example, they excitedly move their bodies in different ways ways as they dance to a variety of music. They are intrigued as they listen to their heart beating faster after exercise. Children have independent access to the magnificent outdoor space. They run, climb, dig and ride trikes and bikes, gleefully chasing each other and ensuring they do not 'crash' or 'bump' into each other.

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

• The passionate, ambitious, and dedicated manager and her team have a strong and clear vision for the pre-school, and ensure all areas of staff practice are consistent and of high quality. Staff provide a magnificent and broad curriculum designed to prepare children for their next stage in learning and, when the time comes, for school.
• Staff use their very precise and accurate assessments of children's development and understanding of their interests, to encourage rapid progress. Any delay in children's development is identified very early and gaps close or close quickly.
• The manager leads her staff team extremely well. Staff say that they feel highly valued and supported in their role by the manager and other colleagues. The manager is hands-on and is a fantastic role model for staff, offering them help and guidance. She regularly completes observations of staff and has regular meetings to discuss how they can improve their practice. For example, staff have recently completed training to enable them to further support the already excellent teaching and learning for children who speak English as a second language or have speech and language delay.
• Partnerships with parents are very well established and valued. Parents report how exceptionally well informed they are about their children's learning and provide very positive comments about their children's experiences at the pre-school. They say that staff are approachable and always have time for them.
• The manager has developed excellent practice to ensure that staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) effectively. For example, the manager promptly seeks advice and support from professionals and the host school. She provides guidance to staff who have very precise knowledge of children's individual needs. Children with SEND make extremely good progress from their starting points in a short space of time.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, the manager and staff provided parents with videos to enable them to continue children's learning and development at home. Parents comment that this was a wonderful idea, where the manager and staff recorded stories and singing and dancing sessions, which their children truly loved and asked to do over and over.
• All staff have exceptionally high standards for all children's behaviour. Staff deal with disagreements swiftly, effectively and in an age-appropriate way. Children show a positive attitude to learning and play together exceptionally well, taking turns and sharing. Children fully engage with the 'what's in the box?' activity. They eagerly choose a small box and wait to find out what is inside. They are totally delighted when they guess right as the staff give them clues.
• Staff support children to learn about the wider world, and diversity is reflected extremely positively throughout the setting. For example, children's home languages are celebrated as they count in French and Spanish. In addition, parents cook cultural dishes for the children and staff to share.