Central@rlk

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this warm, welcoming and inclusive pre-school where staff take time to thoroughly understand the backgrounds and individual needs of the children and families attending. Staff offer young children immense support so that they can separate from their parents with ease and feel safe and secure with the staff so they are ready to settle and learn. Young children sit and concentrate and join in with singing and dancing. Staff join in enthusiastically, narrating what actions the children are doing, and this fully supports the children's confidence and language development. Older children play well together cooperatively. Staff give them the tools they need to share and take turns. When children want something another child has, they learn to ask, use a sand timer and give the other child a picture card to remind them when it is their turn. This reduces disputes and creates a calm and harmonious environment that is highly conducive to children's learning.

The provider and staff implement a broad and sequenced curriculum based on children's individual needs, interests and backgrounds. Children have a range of experiences they may not otherwise have access to. For example, they have trips to the cinema and a visiting farm to support their concentration, knowledge of the community and the natural world. The provider has prioritised gaining funding for a climbing frame, recognising that many children do not have access to the outdoors, to develop their core strength and physical skills. The provider and staff monitor children's progress meticulously, putting in place specific support to help children catch up while waiting for outside support. This means all children make very good progress from their variable starting points.

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

• The provider is committed to ensuring all children have the best start in life. They engage in research projects to share important incentives with parents, such as the links between exercise levels and diet. They help parents understand about healthy eating and portion sizes and the need to reduce children's milk, so they are hungry to eat their lunch. Toilet training in the pre-school is a huge success. Through sustained partnership working with parents, the majority of young children are out of nappies by the time they move up to the 3-4-year-old room. This ensures that children have the self-care skills they need for starting school.
• Staff feel incredibly well supported in the pre-school. They have regular staff meetings and feedback on their teaching practice, which they appreciate and see as an integral part of their professional development. Staff attend regular training that has an extremely positive impact on their practice. Staff report that training has enabled them to implement breathing techniques to help children self-sooth when they are frustrated. This has had a positive impact for children in managing their emotions.
• The provider has used additional funding highly effectively to support any gaps in children's development. For example, when children lacked the confidence to speak in the pre-school, they provided some walkie talkies and 'talking machines', which were a fun way to build on children's confidence to speak and hugely successful.
• The provider and staff place a huge focus on supporting children's speech and language development. The environment is language rich, and staff use stories, songs and rhymes to build children's vocabulary. Staff provide a narrative to younger children's play and introduce additional words as they describe objects. Staff ask older children open questions and allow them plenty of time to think and respond. Children are confident communicators. Those who have gaps have small group activities to build on their language skills and help them catch up.
• Partnerships with parents are very effective. Parents report that they are incredibly pleased with their children's progress and are highly supported by staff to be consistent in encouraging their children's development at home. Parents say that their children have come on in 'leaps and bounds' with their speech and language, independence and toilet training and that they are kept up to date with any referrals for outside support. Parents are involved in programmes the provider runs that empower them to support children's all-round development, including their speech and language, at home.
• Older children become extremely confident in their mathematical skills, including simple subtraction and addition. Staff encourage the children to compare groups of objects, to see which group has the most or least. Staff encourage the children to describe the properties of shapes, such as a rectangle and children explain the difference between a 'square' and a 'cuboid', for example.
• Children regularly engage in physical exercise, indoors and outdoors. Children enthusiastically join in dancing with staff, moving their bodies in various ways. They talk about why they are hot and sweaty and why their heart is beating faster. Children know to have a drink of water when they have finished. Outside, staff provide lots of resources to help children develop their core strength and large physical skills. Children climb up the steps and slide down the slide, they practise using the climbing wall and rope bridge until they are confident and successful.
• Children's behaviour is exemplary. Staff work incredibly hard to help children learn to share and take turns. They talk to children about their feelings, using visual aids when children have less language. Children receive lots of praise and encouragement from staff, such as 'high fives' and sticker rewards. This helps the children feel proud of their achievements and learn to respect their friends.