Early Stars Preschool nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff foster strong relationships with children and their families, getting to know them well. Leaders personally greet families on arrival. They engage with children about their day ahead and remain accessible to parents for conversations or information-sharing. This approach helps children to settle quickly and feel secure in the pre-school environment. As a result, parents leave knowing their children are safe, happy and well supported.

Leaders create and consistently refine an ambitious curriculum that focuses on what children need to learn. Staff adapt their teaching to ensure that every child has opportunities to engage in their learning. For instance, they offer various activities to support children's early mark-making skills, such as creating shapes with play dough and writing in the mark-making area. Leaders and staff regularly assess children's progress. This helps them to identify and address any gaps in children's learning promptly and ensure that all children achieve positive outcomes.

Staff interact with children in a calm and composed manner. They model positive behaviour and gently remind children about sharing and taking turns. Staff refer to the 'rules' and use visual cues to support children's understanding. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from their key person helping them to manage transitions in daily routines using visual timetables. This approach encourages children to display good behaviour.

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

• Overall, leaders foster an ethos of empowering staff through training and support. Staff appreciate the guidance and coaching they receive. There is a strong emphasis on enhancing staff's teaching skills through frequently evaluating the effectiveness of the provision on offer. This enables staff to help children to build on their existing skills and knowledge effectively.
• Staff support the development of children's language and communication skills. They identify key words they want children to learn and create opportunities for them to use these words throughout the day. Staff also incorporate children's home languages, alongside English, to enhance their understanding.
• By reading stories engagingly, staff capture children's attention and encourage them to act out the stories. However, staff do not teach some aspects of early literacy skills consistently or correctly. For example, at times, they do not accurately model the sounds that letters make when supporting children's early reading development.
• Staff generally encourage children to take responsibility for tasks, such as managing their own self-care independently. However, there are times when staff step in too quickly to do things for children, rather than allowing them to learn how to do tasks on their own. For instance, they do not consistently encourage children to tidy up after using resources.
• There are strong partnerships with parents. Parents praise the positive progress their children make and value staff's commitment to providing daily feedback on their children's learning and care. Parents also appreciate the time staff spend discussing their children's next steps in learning. They comment that staff offer practical examples of how they can support their children's learning at home.
• Staff plan a variety of outings to enhance children's understanding of the world around them. These include visits to the library, nature walks, trips to local shops and excursions to the park. Additionally, staff ensure that children get fresh air daily with short walks and have opportunities to explore and learn about their local environment and the world beyond. Staff use these experiences to help to broaden children's knowledge, foster their curiosity and develop a deeper connection to the world they live in.
• Staff understand their roles clearly and collaborate effectively with other professionals, including local authority teams and health visitors, to support children with SEND. They implement targeted interventions and strategies to ensure that all children thrive.
• Staff encourage children to develop healthy habits, for example, by providing nutritious meals and snacks. They also plan activities, such as role playing being a dentist and brushing teeth, to teach children the importance of oral health.
• Staff support the development of children's large-muscle skills effectively. They guide younger children to learn how to throw and catch balls of various sizes through clear modelling and encouraging turn taking. Staff also encourage children to take turns while using the hula hoop, helping them strengthen their core muscles as they practise balancing the hoop on their waist.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the teaching of early literacy skills so that all children benefit from consistently high-quality learning experiences
• promote children's independence further to build their confidence in managing more tasks for themselves.