Central Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff welcome children, showing an active interest in how they are feeling and what they would like to do while at pre-school. This promotes children's happiness. Staff repeat activities, such as number and action songs, to enable all children to have the same opportunities as their peers. This is particularly beneficial for children who need support in their concentration skills, as they have more opportunities to practise. Parents and carers comment on how 'nurturing' and 'caring' staff are. They particularly value how staff plan for children's individual needs and interests.

Children develop independence. For instance, they collect their own water bottles and sun hats prior to going outdoors, playing an active role in their own health and safety. They have opportunities to engage in independent play, such as making their own potions. Staff join in with play, encouraging children to explore their ideas. For example, when children ask, 'What will happen if I mix orange, yellow and brown together?', staff support them to find out and observe the changes.

Staff help children to relate to their peers as they play amicably alongside one another. For instance, children learn to share and take turns. Staff provide children with meaningful praise to celebrate expected behaviour, such as 'good sharing'. Children demonstrate good social and personal skills. For example, as one child operates the water dispenser, another holds a cup securely underneath to collect the water, demonstrating effective teamwork.

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

• The curriculum has been designed to enhance children's cultural capital. For example, staff organise visits to the local care home and invite external visitors in to promote children's future success, such as local authors who share their stories. Additionally, there are plans to enhance the garden area to further benefit children who do not have a garden of their own.
• Children explore a range of activities that link to familiar stories and enjoy making up their own 'magic words'. Staff use actions and open-ended questions to help children remember phrases and finish sentences. Consequently, children demonstrate a love of books and develop good language skills and vocabulary.
• Children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. For instance, staff use gestures, signs and translation tools to communicate with children. They conduct communication screening to identify any delays in children's understanding and speech. This helps them to create supportive interventions to aid children's learning.
• Children are confident and able in mathematics. They learn to count, recognise numbers and put items into size order. Children enthusiastically join in with number songs. For instance, as they sing the song 'Five Little Ducks', they confidently subtract the rubber ducks in front of them.
• Any funding that the pre-school receives is used effectively. For instance, staff have purchased books to help them to talk to children about their emotions. Disadvantaged families benefit from food vouchers, and staff signpost parents to various external agencies to ensure they receive early help.
• Staff display information about children's allergies clearly to ensure their safety at mealtimes. Recent training about veganism has helped staff to understand children's different diets, strengthening their awareness of children's nutritional needs. Parents comment on how well staff work in partnership to support children's welfare.
• Overall, staff have good relationships with parents. They talk to them about their children's progress at drop-off and collection times and use an online app to share pictures and ideas. However, there is scope to further engage with parents and other professionals, including staff at settings that the children have previously attended, to further promote continuity in children's learning.
• The manager uses supervision sessions to discuss staff training and well-being. She encourages staff to identify their own training needs to build on their skills and interests. Staff report positively on the training opportunities, saying that they have 'significantly enhanced their professional development'.
• The manager is currently counted in ratios and spends most of her time working with the children. Consequently, she is not always able to oversee staff practice and procedures, and some areas of practice do not fully align with her expectations.
• Children engage positively with students from the on-site school. Staff value the students and support them to plan and implement activities. Students say they enjoy their time at the pre-school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• engage further with parents and other professionals, including staff at settings that the children have previously attended, to further promote continuity in children's learning
• monitor staff more precisely to ensure that expectations for practice and procedures are consistently implemented.