Brookside Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from a well-thought-out and varied range of educational opportunities. Staff talk to them about their previous experiences. They encourage children to talk about their trip to the park that they took for Father's Day. Children look forward to an upcoming pre-school summer outing and ask staff questions about going to the beach. Children are creative. They use their imagination and build on their ideas. For example, when children play with crafted flags in their mud castles, another child works out how to attach their flag to the wheeled toy they are riding. Staff support children to behave well by being positive role models and by setting clear expectations and boundaries. This helps children to learn how to play and learn together.

Children benefit from regular and purposeful interactions from staff. Some of the activities that children participate in are planned very well. For example, they enthusiastically join their friends as they role play going on an aeroplane. Children learn new words, such as 'pilot', 'tickets' and 'boarding pass'. Children show that they have learned what plants and bees need while they help to water the plants that they grow together in the outdoor area. They approach adults to share their play and learning and confidently seek staff's help when they need it.

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

• The pre-school has had support from the local authority since its previous inspection to help achieve significant necessary improvements. Statutory requirements are now met. Furthermore, the staff are highly motivated to continue to develop the provision to raise standards higher.
• The committee and staff team work closely together. Key staff take responsibility for enhancing various aspects of provision. Staff have a clear vision of what they want to achieve. Consequently, children now benefit from good levels of care and education.
• The provision is continuously improving. Additional funding is spent wisely and this has a positive impact on the individual children it is intended for. Through regular monitoring and assessment of what children know and can do, staff identify children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They work with parents to seek the extra assessment and support needed.
• Staff establish partnerships with other settings that children attend or are moving on to. This helps to develop a joined-up approach to supporting children's learning.
• Leaders and managers use the strong knowledge and skills of more-experienced and highly qualified staff to help other staff improve their knowledge and practice. When new practices are being established, all staff are involved in sharing their thoughts and ideas. This helps all staff to understand and contribute to developing the educational programmes for children.
• Staff are alongside children, engaging with them, during their activities. Children are happy and settled in their environment. Staff value and welcome children's ideas and let children take the lead during activities. However, at times, less-able children do not fully engage with planned activities. Staff do not always promptly recognise when these children need alterations to the activity to feel more able to join in. This means that children do not always get the extra support they need to fully promote their learning.
• The manager evaluates staff's practice and identifies strengths and areas for development. Staff are aware of areas of their practice that they can develop further and work towards the targets they set with managers.
• Parents explain how their children benefit from the educational activities at the pre-school. For example, their children have learned about litter picking and want to do this when they get home. Parents are well-informed about what their children are doing on a daily basis, and how this fits in with the planned curriculum overall. However, staff do not give parents enough guidance and support to help them know what they can do to promote specific aspects of their individual child's learning and development at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the strategies to engage and support parents with helping their children to learn, develop and be healthy
• find further ways to enhance the curriculum for the less-able children so that they receive more focused teaching that supports them to catch up with their peers more quickly.