Cornwood Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome and settle quickly. Managers value staff, and the team are passionate about creating a nurturing pre-school with a strong family ethos. Children develop close and secure attachments with staff. This enables them to feel safe and secure, and builds their confidence. Staff read stories that are familiar to children. Children recall parts of the story that they have listened to before. Staff offer praise to children, which helps to support their emotional needs and confidence.

The curriculum is well planned and sequenced to support children's learning across all areas of development. Staff question children's understanding to find out about their starting points in development. This helps them to build on what children know and can do. Staff plan a natural environment to provide learning experiences that spark children's curiosity. For example, children learn how leaves change colour. They are engrossed through sensory experiences, such as colour mixing. Children enjoy making 'autumn soup' using a variety of tools, including pipettes. This helps to build children's hand-eye coordination and supports their fine motor skills.

Staff use simple and clear instructions. Children listen attentively and understand what is expected of them. They play well with others, sharing and taking turns. Staff join in children's play, narrate their actions and model language to build their vocabulary. As a result, children thrive in this pre-school.

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

• The pre-school has strong partnerships with parents and carers. Many parents state they receive regular updates on their children's progress. They are pleased with the progress their children have made since attending. Parents are involved and included in their children's learning. The pre-school works in close partnership with parents to support the learning of disadvantaged children. For example, staff share books and resources with families to support children's development at home. This helps all children to make good progress.
• Staff plan well-established routines to help children to understand what is coming next. When the tidy-up song starts to play, all children, including the very youngest, help to tidy away the resources. They know the lunchtime routine well. They wash their hands, sit down at the table and serve themselves using tongs and pour their own drinks. This benefits children greatly as they become increasingly independent.
• Children benefit from a broad curriculum with fun and engaging activities. This includes planned outings in the local environment, such as forest school sessions, to enhance their learning. Children enjoy opportunities for purposeful mark making. This supports children effectively to lay a strong foundation for early writing. Staff join in with children's play, skilfully extend their thinking, and introduce new ideas in ways that feel natural and enjoyable. This helps children to become deeply engaged in their play.
• Children show a love of books. They independently ask staff to read stories to them in the cosy book area. Staff bring stories to life by reading aloud with enthusiasm and expression. Staff also implement a 'book of the week'. They read the book daily to ensure that children are familiar with the story. The book is displayed with other books with a similar theme. This helps children to embed their learning.
• Leaders and staff are reflective and constantly evaluate their practice. They recognise their strengths as working in a team. Staff say that leaders care about them and they feel supported. Staff undertake regular training, such as safeguarding and paediatric first aid. They also benefit from additional professional development.
• Staff weave mathematical concepts into children's everyday experiences and activities. They teach children early mathematical language, such as 'heavy, light, float' and 'sink' during water play. Staff encourage counting during everyday activities. For example, children count leaves to add to their 'autumn soup' and count pieces of apple during snack time. However, staff do not extend children's learning in mathematics even further, such as by encouraging problem-solving.
• Overall, staff actively promote children's communication and language. They engage children in conversations and ask meaningful questions. However, at times, some staff ask children questions in quick succession without allowing children time to process them. This does not consistently help children to think about what they want to say and respond to questions.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend older children's learning even more, particularly in solving problems in mathematics
• provide children sufficient time to gather their thoughts, process new information and respond to questions being asked to further support their communication skills.