Byerley Road Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the setting eager to play and interact with their friends. Staff warmly welcome them and help them to settle in and get busy exploring the environment. The happy, relaxed atmosphere helps children to settle quickly. When children require emotional support, staff provide nurturing cuddles, which calm and soothe them.

There is an ambitious curriculum in place which has a particular focus on developing children's independence skills and their communication. Staff carefully plan experiences in the setting based on children's interests. This results in children showing high levels of engagement. For instance, staff plan a dinosaur theme, which ignites pre-school children's imaginations and curiosity. Children develop their own play around this theme, developing key language skills and practising their social skills. Children develop new knowledge and understanding, and use this to make connections in their play. For example, they look closely at features of toy dinosaurs and proudly match them to pictures on a display.

Children's behaviour in this setting is excellent. Staff have taken care to teach children positive behaviours and routines. They help children to build on these skills as they grow and move through each room. As a result, older children are able to listen carefully and benefit from the high-quality teaching, for instance during circle times. This prepares children well for the transition on to school.

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

• The curriculum is carefully planned and sequenced. For instance, staff introduce core nursery rhymes and stories to support children's early language skills. They revisit these frequently as children move through the setting, which increases children's confidence in using and understanding language. Staff gradually introduce new rhymes and stories, expanding children's breadth of vocabulary.
• Staff teach communication and language skills explicitly. For example, pre-school children take turns in a circle-time activity, which gives every child the opportunity to take part and practise their speaking skills.
• Staff model language with babies, successfully helping them to learn and use new words. For example, babies pick up toy dinosaurs and say 'T-Rex' with confidence.
• Staff discuss how they support babies' milestones, such as crawling, cruising and walking. However, they do not consistently plan the environment to extend support for babies' physical development to the highest level. For instance, babies have limited opportunities to practise a wide range of gross and fine motor skills. Staff so not present the books outdoors to stimulate babies' engagement and this limits their skills in practising handling books.
• Staff plan the outdoor environment well to support older children in their physical development. Older children are highly engaged as they practise climbing and balancing on large equipment, as well as improving hand strength and control, such as when using tools to dig in soil.
• Children learn skills in self-care and this is a priority area of focus in this setting. Staff attend to babies' needs promptly, teaching them that self-care is important. Toddlers learn to wash their own hands and spread their own butter on crackers at snack time. They show pride in demonstrating these new skills. Older children learn about health and hygiene in even greater detail. They brush their teeth each day and show high levels of enjoyment and independence in this. Staff also take part in the toothbrushing session, to role model for children.
• Staff enjoy working in this setting. Leaders use supervision sessions to ensure that staff are supported in their role and that any additional support they require is put in place. They provide staff with an online training platform and respond to their training requests. However, leaders do not have a clear overview of the training which staff have completed. This limits their ability to evaluate the impact of training or recognise gaps in staff's knowledge across the team.
• Leaders, including the special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator (SENDCo) and the designated safeguarding lead, make sure that there are effective working relationships between the setting and outside agencies. Additionally, they have established positive relationships with the families of children who attend. This ensures that there is a consistent approach to supporting all children's needs. As a result, all children are happy and safe in the setting, and make good progress in their learning and development.
• Staff support children to develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. For instance, children independently experiment with combinations of ingredients in order to produce their own play dough.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to further develop the learning environments for babies, to focus more closely on promoting their physical development skills
• improve leaders' understanding of the training which staff have undertaken, to accurately evaluate staff's knowledge and skills and identify training needs across the setting more precisely.