Chatterbox Community Pre-School Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children separate from their parents with ease as they happily enter this friendly and welcoming pre-school. They independently place their belongings on their peg before running over to their friends. Children display a strong sense of belonging and show that they feel safe and secure. For example, children rush over to them and show them what toys they have found. They cuddle into staff and begin to chat away. Staff respond with a smile, showing genuine warmth and kindness.

Children benefit from a fun and stimulating curriculum designed to meet their individual needs. Leaders explain their aims are to provide a stimulating environment that enables all children to thrive and make good progress. Children show high levels of enthusiasm as they sing along to songs. For example, they tap sticks in time with the music, demonstrating good concentration skills and determination. Staff enthusiastically join in with the children and give them praise for their efforts.

Children learn to be independent. For example, they grow and nurture herbs in the garden. They carefully cut them and take them inside to make different-flavoured tea. Staff support children by helping them to name the different herbs. Children mix them with water and experiment by making different flavours. They laugh together as they pour tea into cups and pretend to taste it. This helps children to begin to have an understanding of nature and growth.

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

• There is a strong safeguarding culture in the pre-school. Leaders carry out detailed risk assessments and know how to record and report any concerns. Thorough recruitment procedures are in place to check the suitability of staff working with children. That said, those responsible for the pre-school did not notify Ofsted about changes to committee members within the required time frame. This has minimal impact on children because committee members who have not yet had their suitability verified do not have any unsupervised contact with children. Leaders are now fully aware of their duty to notify Ofsted of changes to the committee.
• Staff develop children's mathematical language when they thread mathematical concepts into activities. For example, children count the spots on ladybirds when playing a game. They begin to sort ladybirds into groups with the same number of spots on. This helps children to develop early mathematical skills.
• Children benefit from a language-rich environment. Staff sing songs and read books to children throughout the day. They introduce new words during play, such as 'solidify' and 'minuscule', and model correct pronunciation. Staff also use visual aids and sign language to help children's understanding. This helps children to be good communicators.
• Children have access to a well-balanced curriculum that incorporates all areas of learning. Staff know what skills children have learned and what they want to teach them next. They plan appropriate next steps for children that complement their interests and individual stages of development. However, on occasion, some activities are not precisely matched to the most able children's stage of development. This does not fully build on their skills even further. Despite this, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress.
• Staff are positive role models for children and have high expectations for behaviour. For example, older children give younger children ideas for how they can break ice to free frozen toy animals. Children show good hand-eye coordination as they work together to break the ice. They talk to each other about how the ice will dissolve as the sun is out. This demonstrates friendly and trusting relationships between children.
• Staff say that they love working at the pre-school, and they show genuine affection for the children. Leaders place a high regard on promoting staff well-being, and they feel like they are a 'family'. Staff report that regular individual meetings with leaders help them to feel appreciated and valued.
• Leaders carefully consider how to spend any additional funding, ensuring that it meets the needs of the children and gives them additional support. For instance, leaders used funding to access a training programme based around supporting children's language and communication. This has helped staff to support children's developing vocabulary even further.
• Partnership with parents is strong. Staff provide daily updates on children's well-being and progress. Parents appreciate the good communication and talk of how staff give them ideas for home learning. This enables consistency in children's learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve staff teaching for the most able children to provide higher levels of challenge to extend their learning.