Burford Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this outstanding pre-school and they make excellent progress. Staff provide children with an exceptional start to their early education. This ensures that children have all the essential skills in readiness for school.

Children are highly motivated, independent learners who engage in purposeful play consistently. Staff expertly help them to extend their knowledge and skills. Children use their knowledge and apply it to new situations. For example, they talk about the shapes that have formed when sheets of ice break up. They are inventive and stand the ice pieces up to make small structures

Staff lead by example and help children learn to respect others. Children form exceptionally close bonds with staff and develop strong social skills. Children's behaviour is exemplary and they look out for each other. For example, they hold out their hands to help friends to travel across a challenging balance beam. They offer to help staff and friends with tidying up, and fetch a broom so they can contribute. Children tell staff that they are working as a team.

Children learn about making healthy choices. They talk about how they clean their teeth after they have eaten the chocolate from their advent calendars. They are aware of their body needs and reflect on this with staff. For example, they tell staff that they have not been sleeping well and feel tired.

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

• The new manager, who is also the provider, has initiated significant changes to the curriculum and the teaching approach to rapidly improve the education experiences for the children. She has empowered staff and provided them with excellent support to improve their teaching. Staff receive coaching and training that is precisely tailored to their needs. This ensures that staff have the knowledge and skills needed to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.
• The manager's curriculum is highly ambitious and specifically tailored to the learning needs of the children who attend the setting. Staff have a comprehensive understanding of the children's learning needs. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from outstanding one-to-one support and personalised learning plans. Staff work alongside parents, other settings where children attend and health professionals to monitor progress and implement outstanding education programmes.
• The manager and staff have an excellent understanding of child development. They use this knowledge to analyse their observations of children's play and identify how they can help them to build on what they already know and can do. For example, they monitor children's progress in their communication and language meticulously, and implement targeted support. Children engage fully during small-group focused language sessions. They listen carefully and follow instructions to help them to complete a task, such as placing a specific decoration on a Christmas tree.
• As a result of the staff's excellent teaching and focus on communication skills, children's language development is accelerating. Children who speak English as an additional language rapidly gain the confidence and knowledge to communicate with friends, and staff. Children use their expanding vocabulary to express themselves articulately. For example, they concentrate deeply as they use magnifying glasses to investigate the patterns in ice, and talk about what they see using descriptive language. They use language to question and reason, such as how 'Santa's sleigh' can travel so fast.
• The manager and staff prioritise children's emotional security. Staff fully support children to be emotionally ready to learn. They thoroughly consider the needs of each child and adapt their arrangements to meet children's individual needs. The manager fully supports families to help them to overcome any barriers to ensure that children can access their entitlement to early education.
• Staff skilfully thread opportunities into children's play for them to extend and use their mathematical knowledge. Children independently use numbers to count the steps they have made to cross a beam, and then count to time themselves. They learn about the order of numbers, including one less. For example, they watch, mesmerised, as the advent candle wax burns down to show that they are one day closer to Christmas.
• Staff understand and value the various cultural backgrounds of the children. They make it a priority to understand about children's homelives so they can build this into their planning to meet the diverse needs of the children who attend the pre-school.
• The parent partnership working is exceptionally strong. Parents praise the recent changes and the positive impact this has had for their children. Staff provide parents with a wealth of guidance to support children's continued learning at home. For example, children take home small glasses so they can practise drinking from unlidded cups at home. They eagerly use the lending library so they can share books with their families.