Burwood Preschool CIO

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and have fun at this pre-school, which has a warm family feel. They form close attachments to their key person, which helps children to feel safe and secure. Children behave well and have developed close friendships with their peers, which supports their social skills well. All children, including children with additional needs, make good progress from their starting points.

Children develop a love for books from an early age. Staff regularly read to all children. They encourage discussions about what is happening in the story and what the words mean. Furthermore, they engage children and ask questions about the story that they have read. For example, they ask children what 'Little Red Riding Hood' should have done to keep herself safe from the wolf. This interaction supports children's comprehension skills, critical thinking, and engagement in expressing their opinions in a group successfully.

Children benefit from fresh air and regular exercise. They enjoy outdoor play and have many opportunities to develop their physical skills. For example, children play football with their friends, while others enjoy dancing to nursery songs and hopping like bunnies. This promotes their physical and emotional well-being effectively.

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

• Staff place a strong focus on children's speech and language development. Children snuggle up to the caring staff to enjoy story time throughout the day. Furthermore, staff have also considered how to support literacy learning at home, such as by creating a lending library, which families use.
• Staff provide age-appropriate learning opportunities to teach children about diversity and promote inclusion. Children are invited to bring in cultural foods and share them with their friends at the setting. This fosters a strong sense of belonging and children learn about their own uniqueness, which further benefits their personal development.
• Staff have identified that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, children benefit from talking about their emotions. To support them further, staff use props, such as 'emotion stones', to help the children to talk about what makes them sad, angry or happy, and how to master these emotions.
• Children have plenty of opportunities to learn about the natural world they live in. For example, they plant vegetables, fruit and herbs in the pre-school garden. This successfully promotes their understanding of how plants grow and what they smell and taste like. Staff use this opportunity to teach children about healthy eating to nourish their growing bodies. Additionally, staff engage children in spotting different types of birds that they see and hear in the garden. They use binoculars and books to help identify the different birds. Children learn to appreciate that living with and alongside nature is an important part of the world that they are growing up in.
• Staff have a secure understanding of the early years curriculum. They know their key children and their families well. Staff observe and assess children to identify any gaps in their learning and development. Staff use this information and swiftly identify children who may need additional support. Managers have a thorough understanding of the processes involved in working with other professionals, including the local authority and speech and language therapists.
• Staff report that they feel well supported by the manager. They have the opportunity to further develop their knowledge and expertise through ongoing professional training. This enables them to support all children at the pre-school. Staff have regular appraisals and meetings with the managers, and feel that they can raise any concerns.
• Overall, children learn to manage their self-care well. However, at times, staff do not embed routines well enough, such as in relation to handwashing, to help children to fully understand the importance of managing their personal hygiene.
• Staff take good account of children's needs when using additional funding. For instance, they obtain resources to support children's individual learning needs and base these on their current interests.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• embed self-care routines consistently to help children to fully understand the importance of managing their personal hygiene.