Downside Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

From the time they come into the preschool, children enjoy playing and exploring. They move around the rooms and garden, selecting activities and resources that they like or that interest them. Staff sensitively support new children and those who are less confident to find the resources they like. They gently encourage and praise children when they make decisions for themselves. This helps children to become confident, enthusiastic learners.

Children think through how they can solve problems. For example, they decide they need to use glue or tape to add additional pieces of paper to their art creations. They proudly show their achievements to the attentive staff, who ask them questions about what they have made. This helps to support children's growing self-esteem and helps to promote their individual creativity.

Children benefit from the clear focus of the curriculum that staff plan and deliver. There is a particular emphasis on children's social and personal development and their skills in communication and language. This helps build on what children already know and understand. Staff share the same story with children every day for a week. During this time, children recreate the story using puppets and props. They recall the order of the story and copy words and phrases they remember. This helps children build on their emerging vocabularies while staff foster a love for books and stories.

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

• The manager is dedicated to continual improvements in the preschool and is an advocate for continuing professional development. She and her staff engage in many training opportunities and with visiting professionals. This contributes to the highly relevant strategies and practice that staff follow. This helps promote children's good progress.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported from the time they start in the preschool. Staff encourage children to use picture cards and find out key words from parents in the language children speak at home. Parents and staff access an electronic application to help translate important information they need to share. This helps to ensure that staff have the accurate information they need to help keep children safe and to help settle them in the preschool.
• The manager and her staff quickly build good relationships with children and their parents. They find out what children are interested in to help trigger children's motivation to learn. Staff introduce new experiences that are memorable, helping to extend children's knowledge even more. Staff give parents ideas for how they can support children's learning and development at home. They pass on information about courses and help that families can access from the neighbouring children's centre, helping to promote even more positive experiences for parents and their children.
• Children behave well. Staff encourage them to share and take turns, giving gentle reminders to help children find ways to resolve minor disputes themselves. For example, children who want to sit on the same chair reach a compromise so they can all be comfortable and reach the resources on the table. This contributes to the harmonious and industrious environment in which children are keen to explore and investigate.
• Staff teach children how to brush their teeth. Children use their own toothbrush and follow the simple instructions staff give them. Children confidently tell visitors why it is important to brush your teeth. This contributes to the positive hygiene routines children adopt to help promote good oral health.
• Children welcome staff to join their self-chosen activities and games. They listen to the comments and ideas staff contribute, which encourage children to talk and develop their own ideas. However, not all staff introduce mathematical concepts and language into children's play. This restricts the possibilities children have to recall what they already know and to strengthen their understanding of concepts, such as quantity and size.
• Staff use their accurate assessments and observations to help plan what children need to learn next. However, some teaching does not focus on the precise needs of individual children. Consequently, at times, children are not sufficiently challenged to help them build on what they know and understand to help maximise their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• introduce even more mathematical language and concepts in children's self-chosen play and every day routines
• support staff to recognise when and how to add more challenge during activities with children to help enhance children's learning even further.