Creswick Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a safe and nurturing environment for children. They know that children need to feel happy and secure to thrive. Therefore, they prioritise children's emotional well-being. For instance, they support them through any changes in their life and provide bespoke settling-in sessions. This enables children to build secure attachments with the staff team before they join the pre-school. Children settle quickly. They feel at ease and are eager to learn. Staff plan learning based on children's interests and provide daily enticing 'wow' activities that broaden their experiences. This means that children have positive attitudes to learning. This child-centred approach helps all children make good progress in their academic and personal development. Children learn about size and measurement. They work out how much wrapping paper they will need to wrap different-shaped objects in the elf wrapping station.

Self-registration helps children to identify their name. They swiftly develop an awareness of phonic sounds and count how many letters are in their name. Staff support children to understand that information can be sourced through books and supervised use of the internet. They embrace children's curiosity about wild animals, discovering together that cheetahs run faster than leopards. Children learn about life cycles. They observe stick insects hatch from eggs and help to nurture and care for them. Children are highly independent. This is because staff challenge them to manage their own outer clothing and prepare their healthy snack.

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

• Leaders have a clear intent for the well-sequenced and ambitious curriculum, which emphasises supporting children to be respectful individuals and articulate communicators. The staff team implements this through a wide range of exciting experiences that fill children with a sense of awe and wonder. The staff use a wide range of assessment methods to ensure that children's progress is stringently monitored and to precisely identify what skills and knowledge children need to learn next. Key persons know their children very well. However, there are not highly effective arrangements to share their children's next steps in learning with other staff. This means that they are not well informed about how to support children's learning during interactions with them.
• Staff have secure knowledge of child development and consistently build on children's communication and language skills. They identify a diverse selection of core books, and each one is implemented successfully through 'book of the week'. This helps to embed key words and phrases. Children's listening and attention skills are immediately captured as staff read with great intonation and create high levels of anticipation and excitement as they reveal each page. Children swiftly learn the sign of the week, which staff skilfully incorporate into songs. They sing with immense enthusiasm, confidently using sign language they have learned.
• Staff are positive role models for children. They sensitively remind children to use their good manners and support them to recognise their own and others' feelings in preparation to regulate their own behaviour. Children show that they understand and follow the pre-school's agreed handy hints. They play harmoniously together, respecting each other's thoughts and ideas as they use different-shaped wooden bricks to create complex structures.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to provide children with personalised support plans to help them make the best possible progress. Any additional funding the pre-school receives is used to support children's individual needs.
• Staff promote children's healthy lifestyles well. Children learn to assess their own risks and build on their strength and stamina in the inviting outdoor environment. They negotiate walking up and down the hill safely and persevere to climb the suspended step ladders.
• Partnerships with parents are a key strength. Staff ensure that parents are fully informed about children's learning experiences daily, including through secure online platforms. Parents are warmly invited to weekend stay-and-play sessions and are encouraged to borrow books and games to continue to aid children's learning at home. They describe the staff team as 'fantastic'. Overall, leaders work in partnership with most of the other provisions that children attend, although this is not consistent. This means that some children who attend other settings lack continuity in their learning and development.
• Leaders work closely with staff to support their ongoing professional development. Staff have good opportunities to complete training that is tailored to meet the individual needs of children. New knowledge and skills are shared with the whole team to ensure a consistent approach.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the sharing of information between children's key person and other staff
• build on partnerships with all other settings that children attend to support their continuity in learning.