Briston Community Nursery School Limited (Pre-School)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settle quickly when they arrive. Some children require additional support when they first come in and staff respond in a kind, calm manner. This helps the children to develop strong, warm relationships with the staff. Children's social skills and language development continue to be a focus following the COVID-19 pandemic. Children engage well with each other and staff. The environment has been carefully planned and resourced to support the children to make friends and engage in back-and-forth interactions.

Children benefit from the language-rich environment in many ways. They can independently access books of their choice and enjoy spending time looking through them during the day. They are engaged when staff read to them. Staff purposefully take these opportunities to extend the children's vocabulary by introducing and explaining new words, such as 'pruning'. Children are eager to learn when staff read numbers from the book and demonstrate with their fingers how many this is. The children excitedly copy.

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

• Leaders place a strong emphasis on children's language development. Staff have valuable back-and-forth interactions with the children throughout the day. For example, when children are playing with the play dough and a car gets stuck in it, the children are encouraged to work together to find a way of getting the car out. The children are delighted when they succeed.
• The management team plans and organises the curriculum well. It puts the children's emotional well-being and communication at the heart of everything it does. Staff use transition reports from the nursery and information from parents to assess how children are developing and to plan for their next steps. However, not all parents are aware of who their children's key person is or what staff are focusing on with their children.
• Managers have clear intent about what they want the children to learn. They set the room out and resource it well, taking their focus into account. They set the home corner up with familiar objects that children also have at home. They support children to make friendships by creating opportunities for children to play together in small groups. Where some children require more support, staff instigate play where children can observe and join in when they feel ready. However, there are some periods in the day that do not run so smoothly, for example straight after lunch. During these periods, children are not supported with disagreements they have as staff focus on tidying up.
• Staff work well with the school to think about what experiences they can build on to help prepare the children for transition to school. Children enjoy stories in the school hall so they can become familiar with certain spaces.
• Staff make the most of the environment around the pre-school. For example, they take children to the woods at the top of the fields to allow the children to explore. They often use this area for story and snack time. Staff understand the importance of physical activity in the children's overall development. They take as many opportunities as they can during the day to allow the children opportunities to develop their core strength and gross-motor skills.
• There is good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. There are effective partnerships with parents and other professionals to ensure children's individual needs are met. Staff have a good understanding of their individual learning styles and are able to engage them in their learning.
• The management team is knowledgeable and approachable and has a good understanding of what is happening in the pre-school. Staff are well supported through effective induction arrangements, regular staff supervisions, meetings and training. This all leads to providing better outcomes for the children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure all parents are aware of who their child's key person is and how staff support the children at the start of a new school year
• support staff to provide a calmer environment at key times in the day to better support the children, for example when they have finished their lunch.