Church Walk Pre-school Nursery Ltd.

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish at this wonderful setting where highly experienced staff provide meaningful and engaging learning experiences. A carefully planned and sequenced curriculum provides all children with opportunities to develop their skills. Staff challenge children to become deeply involved in their own learning, which supports them to develop resilience and critical thinking skills. They keenly encourage and prompt children's ideas to help take their learning to the next level. Providers have exceptionally high expectations for children's behaviour. Staff sensitively help children to learn the boundaries and rules of the setting through positive reinforcement. Children learn to be positive and respectful of their peers.

The curriculum provides children with a rich set of experiences that help them to make sense of the world around them. For example, staff take children to join in events and celebrations such as the harvest festival at the local church. They learn about children living within the local community and how they can help them. For example, they bring food to church that they have been collecting and know it is for people less fortunate than themselves. Staff teach children about changes in the seasons. They provide lots of exciting opportunities for children to explore the outside environment. Children talk about the signs of autumn, such as falling leaves and conkers, and they keenly notice squirrels in the trees. Children's personal development is exceptional and they are extremely well prepared for their eventual move to school.

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

• Leaders and staff are committed to providing high-quality care and learning for all children. They plan and implement a rich and inspiring curriculum which builds on children's existing knowledge. Leaders and staff meticulously plan learning opportunities for children which enable them to practise, enhance and challenge their learning to take it to the next level. This helps children to revisit and consolidate their learning and ensures that all children make exceptional progress, regardless of their starting points.
• Leaders and staff are dedicated to improving communication and language. They provide extensive opportunities for children to use stories, song and rhyme to promote literacy. Leaders skilfully develop children's communication, questioning, reasoning and critical thinking. This improves children's language by introducing them to new words and developing their understanding through consistently high levels of communication.
• Leaders and staff sensitively teach children about the world in which they live. They acknowledge and celebrate similarities and differences between themselves and others. Staff plan exciting and authentic experiences using real items and equipment to help children to explore celebrations such as Diwali and
• Lunar New Year. This teaches children about tolerance, respect for other cultures and beliefs, and broadens their understanding of the wider world.
• Children show tremendous levels of independence. Leaders and staff effectively foster self-care through everyday activities, such as tidying up and putting on own coats and boots to play outside. Staff teach children about the importance of personal hygiene in keeping us safe from germs. This helps children to develop essential skills they will need for the next stage of their learning.
• Staff have good relationships with the children and their parents, which helps them to provide positive interactions and strong attachments. The robust key-person system helps staff to know individual children very well. This works particularly well for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff swiftly identify when children are at risk of falling behind in their development and know just how to meet every child's individual needs. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to implement specific plans to promote children's progress and to ensure they get any additional help they need to keep up.
• Leaders are dedicated to furthering the professional development of staff. They play to staff strengths and provide numerous opportunities to attend training to continually improve their high-quality practice. Training is disseminated at staff meetings so that all staff benefit from the wide array of skills and knowledge their colleagues have. This enables staff to expertly build and develop their skills over time and provide children with the highest quality of education.
• Leaders work tirelessly to sustain the highest quality of provision. Meticulous analysis of the curriculum and its impact on children's learning, detailed action plans and support from external partners are key in helping them to achieve this. Actions are quickly addressed and evaluated to assess their impact. This enables leaders to consistently appraise their provision to ensure they are providing the best possible opportunities for children.
• Partnership with parents is exemplary. Parents are highly involved in the setting and their presence is welcomed by staff and leaders. They are invited to join in with visits, for example to church, and to stay-and-play or family learning sessions. This helps to provide a coordinated approach to children's learning which results in exceptional progress for all.