Colgate Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children behave well and they respond positively when staff engage with them. They enjoy exploring their surroundings. They show a good attitude to learning as they focus their attention intently on their chosen activity, with gentle support and guidance from staff. For instance, when children find worms in the soil, staff encourage them to find more. Children dig with purpose as they continue their search. When they struggle to regulate their feelings, staff speak calmly and help to redirect their attention. This supports children to quickly re-engage in their learning.

Staff have high expectations for all children to succeed in their learning. For example, children are supported to learn how to look after themselves. The daily routines are firmly embedded, so they know to wash their hands before they eat. They show pride in cutting up their own fruit and serving themselves at snack time. When they have finished eating, children use mirrors to check that their faces are clean. Staff recognise when to step in to help children, and when to give them time to complete these tasks on their own. This provides children with support that is precisely targeted to meet their individual needs.

Children benefit from opportunities to develop their physical skills. For instance, staff encourage them to move their bodies in different ways as they take part in music activities. This helps children to learn to control their body movements.

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

• Leaders design an ambitious curriculum that aims to support all children to make good progress. They include information from schools and their knowledge of the children to identify the skills and knowledge that they want them to learn before they start school. This is shared effectively with staff so that planning can be tailored to enable all children to develop well.
• Leaders and staff value the importance of getting to know all children and their families extremely well. They actively promote the sharing of appropriate information so that staff and parents can work collaboratively to meet children's needs. Leaders understand that each parent accesses information differently, so they ensure that all relevant communication is accessible to them. For instance, children's next steps are shared through the parent app, verbal discussions, and 'bag tags' on children's backpacks. They provide ways for parents to get involved in their children's learning and development. For example, they host parent events throughout the year and offer a lending library to support families to share books together at home.
• Staff receive strong support from leaders for their well-being and professional development. Leaders ensure that staff have access to a variety of training opportunities. They provide effective coaching, mentoring and support in order to support staff to develop their practice. Staff also share new knowledge and skills learned from the courses they have completed, which helps them to work together as a team to support children's learning.
• Staff implement an exciting curriculum which overall, is taught well. For instance, as children build towers with foam bricks, staff ask them if they are taller or shorter than their towers. Staff provide children with the right answer when they guess incorrectly, which helps to correct any misconceptions. However, at times, staff do not use high-quality interactions to extend children's knowledge and skills. For example, staff do not take the time to extend children's learning during some activities, or discuss how activities link to the children's own experiences.
• Staff support children to learn about the world around them. For instance, they teach children about different fruits. Staff encourage them to use their senses to explore these new foods, by looking, feeling and smelling them. Children respond well and actively engage in these learning opportunities. Leaders also organise weekly visits to a mobile food shop. Children spend time weighing the produce they would like to buy and learn how to pay for these items. This helps to give children the skills they need in later life.
• Children are supported to develop their language skills. For instance, staff read books to small groups of children. They successfully bring the story to life by using props and encouraging children to join in with repeated phrases. This helps to embed children's knowledge and understanding of different words to further develop their vocabulary.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently provide high-quality interactions to fully extend children's learning and thinking skills.