Breakspeare Community Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy coming to this welcoming and friendly pre-school. They happily separate from their parents and find their pegs. Children take off their coats and wash their hands, eager and ready to start their day. They use their imaginations well as they act out real-life experiences, using the many role-play resources in the 'coronation role-play' area. Children pretend to make cups of tea and offer visitors fruit and cake. In the creative area, they enjoy making flags and crowns, decorating them with 'jewels'. Children show pride in their achievements. Staff offer lots of praise and encouragement, which helps to boost children's self-esteem. Children play cooperatively together, expressing their ideas as they excitedly recreate scenes using the small-world kings, queens and castles.

Children display high levels of perseverance. They gather round the 'busy fingers' table, concentrating very well as they colour inside the lines of a picture of a 'colour monster'. They talk about the different emotions of the 'colour monsters' in the book. This helps them to explore and understand their own feelings and emotions. Children develop an understanding of the natural world. For example, they watch with amazement as ducklings hatch out of their eggs. Children learn the language of mathematics as they use pretend money to buy items from the 'shop'. They develop early writing skills as they make shopping lists and practise writing their name. When they are ready, staff support children to learn letter names and sounds, to help them as they begin to read. Children learn the key skills they will need when they move on to school.

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

• The manager and staff ensure that all children make very good progress and have a happy and enjoyable time at the pre-school. They work extremely well as a team and show a great deal of warmth and affection for the children. Children are very well behaved and use good manners. For example, they say 'excuse me' when they want to speak. Children play happily together and learn to take turns and share their toys.
• The well-designed curriculum reflects children's learning needs and interests. Staff plan activities that support and challenge children's learning. They quickly identify when children need extra support and put effective measures in place. However, staff do not find out as much as they can about what children already know and can do when they begin attending, to enable them to plan thoroughly and build on children's learning from the start.
• The manager and staff place a strong focus on developing children's language and communication skills. They skilfully support children who speak English as an additional language to become confident communicators. Stories, rhymes and songs feature regularly throughout the day to encourage children's listening and attention skills. Staff place books all around the setting, where children can easily access them, both inside and outside.
• Parents are very keen to describe the friendliness of the staff team and how happy their children are to attend. They say that the communication between themselves and the pre-school is 'excellent'. Staff share the weekly 'blog', which gives parents information about what their children are doing at the pre-school and how they can help them at home. Older children take home 'activity bags' to help prepare them for school.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are quickly identified and supported. Staff attend specific training courses and work closely with parents and other professionals. The manager attends network meetings with outside agencies and immediately puts their suggestions in place. The tailored, individual programmes of support enable all children to make the best possible progress from their starting points.
• Staff encourage children to lead a healthy and active lifestyle. Children follow good hygiene practices, and staff provide them with healthy snacks. There are many activities to support children who learn best outside. For example, they take turns with the ride-on toys and love to make 'potions' in the 'forest garden kitchen'. Children learn to take appropriate risks and challenges as they play and learn.
• The manager highly values the staff team and demonstrates very good leadership skills. Her regular supervisions and monitoring of staff practice helps to ensure consistently high-quality practice across the pre-school. Staff say that the manager is 'fantastic' and that they feel incredibly well supported.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• gather more precise information when children first start at the setting, to help clearly establish starting points and inform the curriculum at the earliest opportunity.