Chingford Mount Baptist Church Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the pre-school happy and excited for the day ahead. Children who are settling-in observe and smile as they watch the other children take part in small group activities. Staff have developed strong, caring relationships with children. All of which helps support their emotional and social development. Children are well behaved. They listen, participate and discuss how to be kind to each other. They understand the group's rules. Staff plan a well-designed curriculum. On arrival, children immediately choose from the many learning opportunities available to them.

Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is good. Staff discuss children's development with parents to ensure that timely referrals are made, and children receive the help they need. Children develop their sensory skills as they make marks and draw letters in flour. For example, children are supported to develop their fine and gross motor skills as they concentrate and manoeuvre their hands to draw the letters of their name. Children enjoy playing outside in the warm sunshine as they climb, run and jump. Staff encourage children to explore the well-resourced garden, which helps build their physical and curiosity skills.

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

• Leaders have not notified relevant agencies of a significant event within the required timescales. However, they have taken action to rectify this, and it has had no impact on children.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Parents are happy with the pre-school and the progress that their child is making since starting. Parents comment that older siblings attended the pre-school and that staff are friendly and warm. They receive regular updates about their child's progress and next steps in learning. Parents are invited to join in celebrations and to discuss with children their job roles, for instance police officer jobs. All of which helps children to understand about people who help us. Parents speak about how well staff support children who need additional help and the effective impact this has on children's preparation for their move on to school.
• Morale is high at the pre-school, and staff comment that they are happy and well supported by leaders. Staff attend regular staff meetings and are offered training opportunities. However, staff do not always take part in regular one-to-one supervision meetings with leaders so that they can discuss their ongoing needs and any concerns that they may have.
• Children are offered many good learning opportunities indoors and outdoors to develop their learning. Staff interact well with them, questioning children and demonstrating how to use resources during play activities. However, staff interactions with children do not always fully challenge children to extend their learning further.
• Staff support children's developing language and communication skills well. For example, staff encourage children to speak up during circle time sessions. Children listen to stories carefully and respond to staff's questions about what has happened in the story. Children enjoy the game 'What's in the Box'. They take turns to pull out an object from the closed box and describe what they have in their hand. Children build confidence and improve their language as they use descriptive language to tell all their friends what they have picked out of the box.
• Leaders use additional funding to purchase resources and arrange additional specialist coaching, for example sports and dance activities. This helps to ensure all children are offered learning opportunities beyond anything that they have experienced before.
• Leaders work well together to identify areas for improvement at the pre-school. For example, improvements have been made around the organisation of the learning environment and how staff separate older and younger children at different times during the day. Leaders state that this helps staff to offer children support according to their age and stage of development and offers a more tailored approach to children's learning experiences.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the support for staff, for example through regular supervision meetings to help improve their practice
• develop further staff's understanding of learning intentions so that they can help extend children's development during play.