Berrynarbor Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a warm welcome to children as they enter the pre-school. They focus on building positive relationships with children and their families. New children benefit from high levels of attention and care that develops their confidence and feelings of being secure. They settle and quickly explore with independence and join others in their play. An effective key-person system is in place. Staff communicate regularly with colleagues and parents about children's progress. Parents are well informed about how they can help their child at home. Children benefit from rich interactions and adaptations from all staff during their play that meet their learning and development needs.

Children understand the procedures within the pre-school. Staff gently remind children of the expectations, such as 'walking feet' and using 'kind hands'. They praise children for following the rules and showing kindness. Staff support children to resolve conflicts and teach them different ways that they can work out issues. Children are able to work together to find solutions to issues, such as both wanting the same toy. Children show high levels of positive behaviour and manners. For instance, they say 'please' and 'thank you' without being asked, and older children remind younger children of the rules.

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

• Staff have a clear idea about what they want children to learn. They link planning to children's individual needs and next steps, as well as their interests. For example, they introduce a role-play laundry for children to learn about how to dress themselves following their love of dressing the toy babies. Children benefit from these experiences that encourage them to remain engaged and focused while learning key skills.
• Staff regularly observe children to monitor their progress. They quickly identify gaps in learning and development and put interventions in place. For example, they have introduced visual aids alongside using words with children to support their speaking skills. Additionally, they work closely with parents and other professionals to provide the best possible learning and support. All children make strong progress at the pre-school.
• Leaders monitor staff's practice and offer training and support. For example, they regularly observe staff's interactions with children and provide advice for how they could advance children's progress. Staff's ability to provide challenge and support to children has improved since the previous inspection. However, in some adult-led activities, staff offer ideas to stretch children's learning but do not explain what they mean. For example, they encourage children to make snakes with patterns but do not show children what this looks like. Therefore, children do not know what to do.
• Staff support children to make healthy choices. They work with parents to ensure that children have nutritional foods in their lunch boxes. They teach children about which foods give us energy and make us 'strong'. Children learn how to brush their teeth and how often this should be implemented to keep their teeth healthy. However, staff do not teach children about effective hygiene practices effectively. For example, staff do not explain to children about the importance of handwashing or how germs can make them poorly. Additionally, they do not explain to children why they should not eat food that has fallen onto the floor, only that they should not do it.
• Staff build children's communication and language skills. They model how to pronounce new words and encourage children to have a go themselves. Children enjoy learning this new vocabulary and share these words with their friends. For example, they tell other children that in China people cook with 'woks'. Children are highly communicative and contribute to conversations. For instance, they talk about activities they do outside the setting, such as 'karate', and ask their friends questions about these.
• Children are prepared for their next stages of learning and development, such as starting school. They learn key skills and knowledge to support later learning. For example, they are keen to compare sizes, count objects and work out simple mathematical problems independently. Children are interested to see letters and numbers, and they show excitement in finding the letters of their name. They develop a love of reading, choosing to retell stories and building the confidence to share these in small groups.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help children to understand the learning intentions during adult-led activities, so they know what is expected of them
• help children to understand how good hygiene practices benefit their health and independence in self-care.