Children's Workshop (Preschool) Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure as they rush into the pre-school, eager to start the day. The well-qualified and highly experienced staff team provides a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment where children flourish. The key-person system is highly effective, and staff have a good understanding of the individual and unique characteristics of the children in their care.

Children behave well. They play harmoniously with their friends and happily take turns and share. Staff set clear boundaries to help children to understand why rules exist, especially those that help to keep them safe. Staff provide children with meaningful praise including for their good behaviour and individual efforts. This helps children to develop a positive sense of themselves and take pride in their achievements.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress from their starting points. The enthusiastic leaders and their staff have created an ambitious curriculum to ensure that children achieve the best possible outcomes. Staff complete regular assessments on children's learning and development. This helps them to quickly identify any emerging gaps and provide targeted interventions. They collaborate well with parents and other professionals, to ensure that all children receive timely support.

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

• Leaders and staff are committed to ensuring that all children become motivated to learn. They provide an abundance of activities and experiences to encourage children to explore, investigate and find out new things. For instance, they provide children with a variety of objects to see which ones float and which ones sink. Older children predict what will happen and younger children find out by trial and error. Children conclude that lighter objects, such as plastic and pinecones float and heavy items, including stones and conkers sink.
• Staff support children's communication and language development very well. They quickly identify children who have gaps in their learning and provide small-group activities to help them to catch up. Subsequently, children with communication and language delays are making rapid progress. They demonstrate good listening and attention skills, enjoy stories, and sing along to familiar songs and rhymes.
• Staff boost children's emerging literacy skills well. Songs, rhymes, and stories are an integral part of everyday routines and books are easily accessible. Children enjoy listening to staff as they read to them with energy and enthusiasm. Mark-making resources are plentiful and staff encourage children to follow their own interests. For example, when children show an interest in printing their names on the attendance register, staff encourage them to do this. These positive experiences support children to develop an enjoyment of early reading and writing.
• Overall, teaching is good. Staff interact well with children. They engage in conversations with them and ask questions to check what they know and remember. However, staff occasionally provide activities that are too challenging for younger children. This leads to children occasionally losing interest and not fully benefiting from the learning experiences provided.
• Staff successfully help children to develop an awareness of leading a healthy lifestyle. They ensure that they have an abundance of opportunities to be physically active both indoors and outside. Children enjoy the time they spend outdoors. They show good skills in balance and coordination, such as when using balancing blocks, beams and confidently manoeuvre around obstacles.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Leaders and staff provide them with regular updates on their children's progress and make suggestions on how they can support learning at home. For example, children take books home from the pre-school to share with parents. This helps to strengthen children's love of reading. Parents comment that their children love attending the pre-school and have made rapid progress.
• Leaders are committed to ensuring that staff's well-being and professional development are well maintained. Leaders provide opportunities throughout the year to meet as a group and individually to build a strong and effective team that benefits the children. This helps to create a happy working environment.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to recognise how to adapt activities so they meet the individual learning needs of the younger children.