Bugbrooke Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children leave parents with enthusiasm when they first arrive. Attentive staff reassure younger children who need extra help to settle. This helps all children to settle quickly and promotes their emotional well-being. Children benefit from a staff team that nurtures every child as a unique individual. For example, children delight in introducing themselves and their friends to visitors. When visitors leave, children are keen to say goodbye and give them a caring stroke on the arm.

Children are curious and confident, when exploring the environment. They are happy and display a strong sense of belonging. Children have fun playing and exploring in the delightful, large, inspiring garden. Staff motivate children to learn and give them frequent opportunities to follow their own interests. Children show super coordination for their age. They demonstrate good control and practise different skills, such as kicking balls and scoring goals. Children learn to take safe risks under the watchful eye of staff. They carefully negotiate the slide, going down it forwards, backwards, and front ways safely. Children show high levels of perseverance and are extremely motivated to complete their own goals. For instance, children fill and empty buckets of sand with the intention of making a sandcastle. When the sandcastle crumbles they say to staff 'I didn't lift it up straight'.

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

• The manager has a clear vision for her staff and the pre-school. She reflects on improvements to enhance the opportunities available to children. For example, she recognised that the teaching of mathematics was an area for further development. The staff team work together to enhance this area of learning to benefit children.
• Staff consider that the manager gives their well-being the highest priority. As a result, staff morale is high. However, the quality of education is not consistently of an outstanding level. For example, staff, occasionally, do not build on what children know and can already do.
• Staff show a genuine interest in what children have to say, and the activities they involve themselves in. They support children to develop a positive attitude to learning and help them to make good progress in their development.
• Staff provide a curriculum which nurtures children's confidence. They encourage children to recall and talk about their recent trip to visit their new school. This helps to promote children's emotional security when the time comes to move on to school.
• Staff have high expectations for children's conduct and behaviour. They reinforce this through the use of group discussions, positive language, and praise. Staff encourage children to discuss minor behaviour issues, this helps them to understand right from wrong, and realise how their behaviour might affect others.
• Children thoroughly enjoy snack time outdoors. They sanitise their hands before eating, this contributes to a healthy lifestyle. Staff provide them with healthy food choices, such as bananas, grapes, and pears. Children use their independence skills to help themselves to fruit.
• The manager spends additional funding thoughtfully to help further children's literacy skills. For those children interested in books, a new tape recorder and set of headphones have been purchased. This builds on children's interest and enables them to listen to stories independently.
• Staff provide children with good opportunities to explore beyond the pre-school. They regularly take children for nature walks, collecting items of interest. Children visit the local café to thank staff for the binoculars they donated to the pre-school. These experiences help children to widen their knowledge of their local community.
• Children gain an in-depth knowledge about living things and understanding of the world. For example, children show great interest in caterpillars they are nurturing into butterflies. They recall the next stage of development is a chrysalis or a cocoon. Furthermore, children enjoy growing and planting, they eagerly water the many plants they grow and talk about those they will eventually harvest.
• Partnership working with parents is strong. Parents say that they would not hesitate to recommend the setting, and that the manager and staff go 'above and beyond' to support children. They highly commend the staff team and feel a part of their children's educational experience. Parents state that they receive regular feedback and information on how to support their child's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support all staff to consistently extend and build further on children's learning.