Blagdon Under Fives Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are friendly and caring. They warmly welcome children and their families, helping children to settle quickly. Children are keen and eager to start their day. They know the routines well and confidently wave goodbye to their parents and carers and go and play. Children form strong attachments to staff and good friendships with their peers. The provider creates a calm and relaxed environment, which helps children to feel safe and secure. As a result, children are very settled and confidently explore the pre-school. Children eagerly choose where they want to play and seek out their friends to play with. For instance, children enjoy using the blocks to build and create roads and ramps for the toy cars.

The provider plans a curriculum with a focus on helping children become confident and independent in preparation for their next stage in learning. Staff encourage children to manage their own personal hygiene, and children enjoy serving their own snack as they sit together to eat. They confidently pour their own drinks and spread the jam on their toast. Staff support children's language development well. For instance, children concentrate intently as staff read to them and join in with the key parts of the story when prompted by staff. This helps children to recall and use new vocabulary and nurtures their communication and literacy skills.

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

• The provider has built strong partnerships with the host school. Staff work closely with teachers to support children to learn the skills they need to help ensure a smooth transition. Children benefit from taking part in school events to familiarise themselves with the new environment. This helps ensure that they are confident and excited about starting school.
• The provider places a strong focus on promoting children's language and communication skills. Staff model language well as they play alongside children, helping children to hear a wide range of language to extend their own vocabulary. Children enjoy stories. They eagerly choose books for staff to read to them, which staff are always happy to do. Staff read stories with excitement, which captures children's imaginations to help them develop a love of reading.
• Staff provide children with good support to develop their physical skills. They encourage children to explore a wide variety of resources to help develop their coordination, strength and balance. For instance, children learn to gain control over their arms and hands as they confidently pour lentils using different-sized spoons to fill containers, concentrating and focusing well as they try not to spill the lentils.
• The provider recognises the importance of working in partnership with children's parents and carers. Staff work closely with parents from the start to get to know children's needs and interests and to assess their development. Staff tailor children's settling-in periods to suit each child and their family to help them all feel secure in the process. This effective two-way flow of information helps to ensure that children make good progress from the outset. Parents comment positively on the care and support that the pre-school provides to children and their families.
• Overall, children behave well. They understand the expectations in place and are keen to help staff. For instance, they eagerly help sweep and tidy up the leaves in the garden. On occasion, when children find it difficult to manage their feelings and behaviour, staff do not support children to understand the potential consequences of their actions on others. For instance, when minor disagreements occur, they do not talk to children about being kind to others and to be mindful of their feelings to help them learn to manage their own behaviour.
• Staff know children well. They assess children's progress accurately and understand what each child needs to progress their learning further. Staff plan activities to nurture children's interests. However, at times, staff do not consider how they can adapt activities to further challenge children's thinking and extend their learning even further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support children to understand the potential consequences of their actions to help them learn to manage their own feelings and behaviour
• develop the curriculum to offer more challenge to extend children's learning even further.