Chalfont St Peter Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive extremely eager to learn and play. New children settle in extremely well. Staff, families and children have developed excellent relationships. Leaders and staff successfully create an environment,where each child's physical and emotional well-being is prioritised and expertly nurtured. The calm, consistent and very caring approach of staff supports children to understand and manage their emotions extremely well. Staff provide an abundance of praise to children when they complete tasks, building their already high self-esteem. Transitions throughout the day are smooth and seamless, supporting children as they move around activities. This helps to ensure that children feel secure and that their emotional needs are consistently met, fully supporting their well-being.

Children have lots of opportunities to use their imaginations and be creative. Children pretend to make food and drinks and eagerly engage staff to join their play. Staff encourage children to develop their fine motor skills and control over tools, such as using crayons for a bark rubbing activity and pouring water from jugs to cups.

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

• The dedicated leaders have high ambitions for the nursery and put a high emphasis on staff, children's and families' well-being. Staff are attuned to children's emotions. For example, they recognise and respond to their emotional needs when they show they are sad. Staff purposefully use activities to help young children understand how emotions make them feel. This contributes to equipping children with coping skills when they experience strong emotions.
• Children make good progress. The setting uses additional funding well. They look at what children need to succeed and provide them with opportunities that they might not usually experience. Staff use children's interests to plan an exciting curriculum that supports children to become ready for their next stage of learning. Staff use children's love of the outdoors to teach them how to stay healthy. Children visit the allotment where they harvest fruit and vegetables. The children take these home to share with their parents.
• Staff model language well through engagement with children. They show passion for continually introducing new vocabulary to children and giving clear explanations through a variety of activities. Children learn new words, such as 'vibrant' and 'deciduous', as they find leaves outside with staff. Staff enthusiastically share a range of stories with children and ask questions to support their understanding and sequencing skills.
• Staff state they feel well supported in their roles. Staff have access to training and professional development, and they benefit from regular individual and team meetings. This helps staff to build on their knowledge and skills.
• Staff provide opportunities for parents to extend children's learning at home. For example, there is a library of activities for families to borrow. This helps children connect what they learn in the nursery to their daily life. Parents' views are respected, and staff regularly ask parents for updates about children's life experiences. This helps staff's understanding of children's development. Parents comment stating the care their children receive is 'excellent'.
• Children behave well overall, staff are attentive to any unwanted behaviour and always ensure that the children are safe. However, staff do not consistently provide clear explanations to help children understand why some behaviour is unwanted. For example, they say 'kind hands' or 'walking feet' but do not explain what could happen if they run or do not share.
• Mathematics is supported well in children's activities. Staff provide play experiences to encourage children to expand their maths vocabulary. For example, children decide together which objects are higher and lower and shorter or longer. This helps build children's social skills and their understanding of early maths concepts.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further staff skills to consistently provide children with explanations about the impact of unwanted behaviour.