Breaston Pre-School CIO

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy in this welcoming, friendly pre-school. Staff, greet children warmly and are reassuring and attentive to children's needs. They know that children learn best when they feel safe and secure. As a result, they spend time getting to know the children and develop positive relationships with them. Staff create a caring and nurturing environment in which children can grow and develop. Consequently, children are excited to learn and settle quickly, eager to play.

Children quickly develop the confidence they need to explore and learn. They investigate the outdoor areas with interest. Older children work together and discover that they can make an ice cream shop out of crates and wooden planks. Staff support and guide this learning well. They suggest ways of securing the planks to the crates to help to extend children's problem-solving skills. Staff ask questions to encourage the children to describe what they are doing, to help develop their language and thinking skills. Younger children balance on beams developing their core muscle skills. Staff help the children to complete the task by encouraging them to put their arms out to balance. They hold children's hands to reassure them and give them plenty of praise to help them achieve the task.

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

• The manager and staff implement a curriculum that follows children's interests and prepares them for their future learning. For example, staff promote children's language skills effectively. They get down to the children's level and talk to them about what they are doing. Staff help two-year-old children to build sentences and encourage older children to hold conversations. For example, children talk about how they are going to mix the herbs into the playdough to make it smell. This helps children to use the words they have learned.
• Staff are focused on developing children's love of books and literacy skills. Children relax and unwind in the cosy book area. Staff read to children, who listen attentively. Children help to turn the pages and staff support them to recognise and identify familiar objects as they point to the pictures. To help extend an interest in books, staff have set up a lending library to encourage children and parents to borrow books to read at home.
• Overall, staff interact and promote children's learning well. However, they do not consistently support children in their mathematical development. For example, staff do not always support children to count or recognise numbers as they play to help them develop their counting skills and understanding of numbers.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively (SEND). The special educational needs coordinator works with the local authority and other services to ensure that children get the best possible care and support. She identifies children's individual needs accurately and support is put in place quickly. As a result, children with SEND make good progress from their starting points.
• Overall, staff encourage children to develop their self-care skills throughout the day, particularly at snack and lunch time. However, occasionally, in their eagerness to help children, some staff do things for children that they could try to do for themselves. For example, some staff put the new superhero cloaks on children and zip up children's coats before letting the children try first. On occasions such as these, children's independence is less well promoted.
• Parents report how happy they feel with the pre-school. They say their children have made good progress. Parents have good relationships with the staff. They know what their child is learning now, and receive online updates and regular reports about their child's progress. This helps to support a consistent approach to each child's learning and development.
• The manager recognises the importance of continuous professional development. All staff, receive regular supervision and training to improve their practice and the experiences for children. For example, some staff recently accessed training for forest school activities. This has helped them to provide activities to encourage children to take risks. Consequently, children show high levels of safety in their play, for instance, when chopping vegetables to make soup.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to build on the teaching for mathematics further to help extend children's knowledge of counting and numbers
• develop how children can be supported more frequently to do things for themselves.