Dalgarno Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the pre-school happy and eager to greet staff and their friends. Children demonstrate their developing independence as staff support them to hang up their coats. They quickly settle and engage with different activities in the room. Staff are attentive to children's individual needs and support them to make choices about their learning and play, both indoors and outdoors. They actively engage with children and respond with enthusiasm when joining in with role-play games. For example, when playing outside, children eagerly use money at the 'hot chocolate' stand and count how many marshmallows to add. Staff guide them to learn about money, which children repeat in their play. This helps to reinforce children's early mathematical development and develop their imagination.

Children benefit from being cared for by staff who know them well. Staff use their knowledge to provide meaningful activities that carefully build on children's prior learning and skills. This helps all children to make good progress. Staff foster positive relationships with children and are skilled in supporting children's emotional well-being. Children happily play alongside their friends. Staff gently remind children about appropriate behaviour, such as turn-taking, and children keenly use the sand timer to support their learning.

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

• Leaders have a strong understanding of what they want children to learn. They create a broad curriculum that promotes children's abilities across the areas of learning. Overall, the consistent staff team have a secure understanding of how to support children's individual needs. Staff receive ongoing support and access a wide range of additional training and professional development. This helps staff to focus on their engagement with children and improve their teaching skills to support children's learning.
• Staff support children well during activities to encourage their curiosity and enable them to make connections in their learning. For example, children enjoy exploring ice and discovering how to use brushes and water to rescue the arctic animals inside. However, activities are not evaluated effectively to identify what children need to learn next, close gaps quickly and enhance learning even further.
• Physical opportunities promote exploration and the development of children's gross motor skills. For instance, children enjoy balancing on the balance beam, and jumping in and out of hoops.
• Staff establish positive relationships with parents. They gather detailed information from parents when children first start. This helps them to identify clear starting points for learning and any additional support that children may need to help them make progress. Parents speak highly of the nursery and the friendly staff. They value the regular updates they receive and recognise the skills children have developed since starting.
• All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or with English as an additional language, make good progress from their starting points. Leaders work closely with other professionals to ensure that children with SEND have personalised plans in place to meet their individual needs.
• Leaders use additional funding effectively, ensuring that children attending are offered the full learning experiences on offer. This means children are making good progress in their learning and support offered for the family as well.
• Children benefit from high-quality interactions with staff within this language-rich environment. Staff repeat and reinforce vocabulary. They consider children's different levels of understanding and fluency. Staff plan opportunities for children to listen and follow instructions. Children use new language and are supported during small-group language sessions to develop their skills further.
• Children learn how to use mathematics purposefully during play. For example, children count how many marshmallows for the hot chocolate, they eagerly talk about the shapes they draw and enjoy learning about concepts of 'bigger' and 'smaller'.
• Leaders carry out regular supervision sessions with staff. They use these meetings to identify issues with workload and support staff's well-being. Staff embrace new initiatives and opportunities to build on their knowledge and skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use assessment more precisely to check what children know and can do in order to inform teaching and enhance their knowledge and skills.