Camelsdale Preschool CIO

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Committed leaders have established highly effective settling-in procedures that focus on the needs of each child and their family. They make good use of these sessions and the first few weeks new children attend, to gather valuable information from parents, such as children's interests and care routines. This is used to organise an inviting and stimulating environment, where children feel safe and secure. Staff observe children closely and quickly identify their capabilities and areas for development. For instance, all children take part in gymnastic sessions delivered by external specialists. During these, staff notice when some children need extra support with gross motor skills, such as balance, core strength and coordination. These skills are then prioritised within the children's unique curriculum and further promoted through purposeful opportunities in their play.

Children form incredibly strong bonds with staff, which nurtures their confidence, emotional security and sense of belonging. Staff provide plenty of opportunities, within daily routines to promote independence. For example, children politely let staff know when they need the toilet and independently wash their hands before meals and after outdoor play. Clear boundaries and consistent expectations support children's positive behaviour. Children learn to respect one another, understand right from wrong and develop meaningful friendships. These skills are guided by an increasing awareness of how their actions can affect others. Older children regularly show kindness by helping their younger peers when they see a need. All children, including those requiring additional support, flourish at this pre-school.

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

• The inspiring leadership team has acted swiftly and effectively to address the weaknesses identified at the previous inspection. From the outset, they involve children, staff and parents in shaping new plans and initiatives. This ensures that everyone's views are valued and helps to create a highly inclusive curriculum tailored to the needs of children and their families. For instance, children who are initially a little hesitant to join activities benefit from quality one-to-one time with staff, who sensitively share books and engage in their chosen play.
• All children enthusiastically embrace storytelling sessions that spark joy and promote learning. They eagerly chant familiar phrases from their favourite stories, as they laugh and join in together. Each staff member shares a strong ethos of nurturing a love for books and supporting children to become confident storytellers. Children also delight in choosing books independently, sitting with their friends and discussing the pictures. This positively strengthens their early literacy development.
• Staff provide children with a wealth of real-life experiences to learn about the world around them. Walks to nearby shops enhance their awareness of their local community, while woodland visits encourage exploration of nature and discovery of insects. This learning continues back at the pre-school, where children excitedly notice spiders and webs on plants in the garden. The pre-school prides itself on belonging to the local area.
• Leaders have developed impressive outdoor facilities that all children enjoy. They fully recognise the value of outdoor play for children's physical development and overall well-being. Children use a variety of wheeled toys, practise balancing on low beams, climb steps on a slide and happily go down, as well as experiment with percussion instruments. These types of activities help children understand how their bodies move. However, while staffing levels meet ratio requirements, staff deployment is not always effective in ensuring children consistently benefit from high quality interactions that fully maximise their learning experiences.
• Staff morale is high, and their pride and professionalism shine through. Leaders appreciate that adapting new approaches can take time and staff respond positively, willingly embracing opportunities to further improve their already good knowledge and practice. However, leaders have not yet embedded robust enough systems to precisely identify any gaps in staff's practice. As a result, professional development is not always sharply targeted to consistently improve staff's interactions with children, which somewhat reduces its impact on further raising the existing quality of teaching.
• Leaders and staff build highly positive partnerships with parents, who are overwhelmingly pleased with the education and care their children receive. Parents value how quickly staff get to know their children's unique personalities and learning styles. Key information about children's progress and the curriculum on offer is shared effectively with parents, alongside regular feedback. This helps enhance parents understanding of their children's learning and supports consistency between home and the pre-school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff deployment to ensure staff engage fully with all children to increase children's enjoyment and extend their learning further when outdoors
• enhance staff supervisions and reflective discussions to ensure professional development is more precisely targeted to staff's individual needs to raise the quality of teaching to the highest level.