Balderton Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff form positive relationships with families and their children. Children are confident and keen to enter pre-school and wave goodbye to their parents or carers. Throughout the session, children are happy and gain support from staff when they need it. Staff prompt children to join in with others. This helps to support children to build friendships with one another. Children laugh together as they show off their drawings to each other. Children run up and down the garden playing chase and giggling together.

Staff show children how to use pipettes, as they describe how to squeeze the end and release it to suck up water. Children practise this with support and use the new skill independently. Children enjoy the responsibility of carrying out tasks that staff have asked them to complete. For example, staff provide children with a bowl of water and encourage them to clean the toy animals.

Children are supported by staff to develop a sense of self and take pride in their achievements. Staff praise children as they achieve something they have not done before. Children reflect on their previous experiences. Staff support them to make links between past experiences and the resources they have set out. For example, children look at toy people, and staff talk to them about the different people that help us who have visited the pre-school. Children recall the different services and the names of people who have visited.

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

• The staff and the managers have a clear curriculum. They understand child development and have clear sequences for learning to prepare children for their next stages of development. Staff and managers plan their environments to reflect children's interests and individual next steps. They ensure the experiences they offer cover all areas of the early years foundation stage.
• Staff support children towards independence. They escort children to use the toilet and encourage them to wash their hands independently when they have finished. Staff are on hand to help children when they need it. At mealtimes, staff provide children with cutlery to serve themselves. Children use spoons to scoop cheese onto their crackers. Staff ask the children to clear their plates away. Children tidy their items away confidently.
• Staff develop children's mathematical knowledge. They talk to children about heavier items sinking in the water. Staff frequently count to expose children to number language and use items to introduce quantities. For example, staff describe the two wheels on a motorbike and four wheels on a car. Children are shown how to use small tools to measure, and staff encourage them to point to numbers on measuring tubes.
• Children are supported to understand how to keep themselves healthy. For example, while children play with the dolls, staff encourage them to brush the doll's teeth. They introduce children to the reasons why they need to clean their teeth. Children talk to staff about where and when they brush their teeth. Before physical exercise, staff put their hands on their heart and encourage children to do the same. They repeat this after exercise to see if children notice the difference in how fast their heart beats.
• Parents and carers speak highly of the pre-school. They say the staff are very supportive of their needs as a family. Parents and carers add that staff share what their children are learning and how they can support them at home, such as how they can develop their children's imagination and gain support for welcoming a new baby to the family. They praise the communication they receive and how approachable the whole staff team are.
• Staff feel well supported by managers and comment on how approachable they are. Staff are happy to discuss both personal and work-related issues they are having. They say they receive regular feedback about their practice, as well as gain access to training. Staff comment that this supports them to develop their practice with children and enhances the experiences they provide.
• Overall, children are supported to behave well. However, staff are not always consistent in managing children's unwanted behaviour. For example, some staff clearly explain why some behaviours are not acceptable. Other staff tell the children to stop without offering any explanation. This means children do not always understand staff expectations or how to manage their behaviours.
• Staff interact well with children to extend their learning during planned activities. For example, they help children to make marks using different materials to support their early writing skills. However, when children engage in free play activities, staff do not engage as consistently to extend children's learning. For example, as children play in the garden and choose their own resources to explore, some staff supervise children rather than engaging with them to further support their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff knowledge of how to consistently support children's behaviour, so it is clear to children what is expected of them
• support staff to develop their interactions with children during free-play activities.