Cherry Trees Pre-School Ltd

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff place a clear focus on ensuring children benefit from an inclusive learning environment. They complete baseline assessments when children join, along with parents, and swiftly identify if a child may need some additional support. Leaders and staff are proactive and work in close partnership with external professionals. They submit referrals in a timely manner and implement recommendations to tailor support for individual children. This helps them to make positive progress and achieve new goals from their starting points. Furthermore, leaders and staff implement effective arrangements and work collaboratively to assess, plan, do and review, which supports children's ongoing development and progress. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those in receipt of additional funding thrive at the setting. They receive helpful levels of attention and support and benefit from generally well-planned daily interventions to help them to achieve new goals. Staff use objects of reference visuals to help children understand the routine and what is happening next. Leaders and staff use additional funding successfully. They invest in new sand and water play equipment to support children's interest in messy play and purchase a spinning chair to support children's interest in rotating during play.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders and staff know children extremely well and plan a generally varied and ambitious curriculum that children enjoy. For instance, children like making cakes in sand and receive skilled support as they discuss the different ingredients. They also hear and use lots of mathematical language as they discuss different weights and measurements. Children also have fun washing different wild animals in water and discuss a recent trip to the zoo where they saw zebras. Furthermore, children have lots of opportunities to develop their early writing and literacy skills as they experiment with water and paintbrushes to explore different marks outdoors.

Although children enjoy a generally varied curriculum, leaders and staff do not consistently consider how they can further enhance and extend activities to offer even further opportunities for learning. Furthermore, although children enjoy singing nursery rhymes during group time, staff do not consider the benefits of smaller group activities to further support children's attention skills and to help quieter children to build their confidence further. Throughout the setting, there is a clear focus on extending children's language skills and helping them to develop a love of books and to hear new vocabulary. This is apparent when children retell the story of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' with a variety of puppets and props. This helps to capture children's interest and motivates them to engage in storytelling within a group.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children demonstrate positive attitudes towards learning and enjoy engaging in a range of learning experiences, both indoors and outdoors. They are motivated to join in and receive helpful levels of support from staff to achieve new knowledge and skills. For instance, they show independence as they find their coats to get ready for garden play independently. They also show developing self-care skills and understand the importance of washing their hands after using the toilet and before eating. In addition, they pour their own drinks and display clear knowledge about making healthy food choices.

Children generally develop effective listening and attention skills as they join in with group activities and storytelling sessions. They use a range of descriptive language such as 'gigantic' and 'scary' when exploring puppets and props. Furthermore, they display creativity and imagination when making Father's Day artwork and experimenting with mixing colours when painting. Children also have fun pretending to go camping. They delight in making mud soup, cooking on the barbeque and filling their backpacks with camping equipment. This fosters their imagination and develops their physical skills. Children evidently enjoy their time at the pre-school and make positive progress across the different areas of learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Children develop positive relationships with their peers. They enjoy listening to stories and singing nursery rhymes together. They also show kindness and patience as they take turns and share resources. Staff are very positive role models. They actively join in with children's play and help them to learn about listening and compassion. They remind children about the classroom rules, and children show clear understanding about the boundaries of the setting. Leaders and staff closely monitor children's attendance and work closely with families to ensure children benefit from consistent care and education.

Staff are respectful and frequently explain the expectations of the setting in a calm and age-appropriate way. They use different strategies, such as using a sand timer to help children to take turns with particular resources. Overall, children show positive levels of engagement and enjoyment, and several children persevere and persist for extended periods during play. In addition, lunchtime is a very calm and sociable part of the day. Children show developing independence as they pour their own drinks and practise using a knife and fork. Children are very polite and staff beautifully engage in conversations about children's favourite foods and activities and what football team they support.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Children show they feel very happy and secure at the setting. They form extremely close bonds with the caring staff and each other. Children's wellbeing and welfare are central to everything they do. Leaders and staff invest a great deal of time into getting to know children and families during the unhurried settling-in sessions. They plan for individual children's interests and learn about their culture and the context of their family. Leaders and staff work hard to create a positive sense of belonging. For instance, they plan a variety of cultural events, such as Henna painting and making tealights when celebrating Eid and Diwali.

Leaders and staff invest a lot of time in ensuring that children transitioning to school is a positive experience. For instance, they attend local authority transition meetings and also hold meetings with individual teachers in order to help the children settle in with ease. Children receive excellent levels of support to grow and foster their confidence. Staff frequently acknowledge children's efforts and give words of encouragement. This keeps them motivated to join in and learn. Leaders and staff work in close partnership with parents and other professionals to promote children's oral health. They have frequent discussions with children about the importance of oral health and engage in toothbrushing activities to support children to lead healthy lifestyles.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

The pre-school is run by a passionate and committed leadership team. The dedicated and long-standing team expresses high levels of enjoyment and satisfaction at work. The team members state that they benefit from termly supervision meetings and ongoing opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. They also express that their workload is manageable and they value the team they work with. Leaders and staff have high levels of integrity when supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or those who may face other barriers to their learning. They work in close partnership with external agencies and use additional funding in a purposeful and impactful way.

Overall, leaders and staff have a largely accurate view of the setting. They engage in ongoing self-evaluation and strive to make ongoing improvements to benefit the children. For instance, they have recently made some renovations to their outdoor space to enhance children's opportunities to play and learn outdoors. Leaders and staff also reflect on their curriculum offer. However, they do not always consider different ways of further extending activities to stretch children's learning to the very highest level. Partnerships with parents are a real strength. Parents are extremely happy with the community at the pre-school. They discuss how their children are flourishing and making very positive progress, and how much they value the welcoming and supportive team.