Elm Street Pre-School Community Interest Company

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a home-from-home experience at this intimate pre-school. Children arrive confident, happy and ready to learn due to the warm welcome they receive from the nurturing staff team. Staff have carefully considered the individual interests and needs of children in their care. This means they can provide bespoke learning experiences. For example, they go above and beyond in helping children to immerse themselves in sensory activities. This helps children to become comfortable to experiment with different textures and experience different temperatures as part of their play. Staff recognise the importance of physical play and ensure that it is a feature of the curriculum. Staff model how to use the wheeled toys outside and encourage children to have a go, even when it is tricky. They celebrate children's success when they eventually manage to pedal a tricycle, acknowledging their resilience and desire to persevere.

Staff help children to settle quickly. They ensure there is lots of purposeful time spent helping them to learn through play. Consistent routines and expectations provide children with the structure they need to become more confident. Staff help children learn through demonstration and discuss the importance of turn-taking, sharing and kind hands. As a result, children are considerate of their friends in their play. Staff encourage children through activities such as manipulating dough to develop the small muscles in their hands needed for later writing. Staff introduce new words to children. For instance, they discuss the recent change in seasons. Children use this new vocabulary in their play. Telling their friends, 'I have made an acorn'.

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

• Leaders have a precise understanding of what they want children to learn. Through accurate observation and regular assessment, children are well supported in their social and emotional development. This contributes to children's preparedness for their eventual move to school.
• Staff encourage children to problem solve and verbalise their thoughts. As a result, children are curious and imaginative learners.
• The environment has been carefully considered to enable children's creative play and encourage them to explore. Children demonstrate their independence as they choose the activities they take part in. At times, children thank their friends for including them in a game and invite them to take part in other imaginative play. Staff encourage children to have true respect and understanding for others. For example, older children help new starters to understand the rules and routines.
• Leaders are advocates for all children, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They work tirelessly to ensure that assessments are made, funding is applied for and support for families is implemented. Within the setting, they make all reasonable adjustments to best meet children's various needs
• During interactions between staff and children, language is not consistently modelled well by all staff. Leaders have not adequately supported staff, through training and development, to improve this aspect of their practice. This means that, at times, children have inconsistent learning experiences.
• Staff help children celebrate what makes them unique. Activities throughout the year introduce the concepts of similarities and differences. This in turn helps children to develop mutual respect for and tolerance of cultures and communities different to their own. Children understand the importance of various components of being healthy. They eagerly role play visiting the doctor and dentist, seeing these as positive experiences. They understand why they need to wash their hands before eating, which they do independently.
• Leaders make effective use of additional funding they receive for children. They use key information about children's needs to access relevant resources. For example, they invest in games to help children learn to positively regulate their emotions. This helps to quickly close any developmental gaps.
• Leaders read books to children about different families and situations, such as if home circumstances change. This helps children to develop a high level of emotional intelligence.
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the experiences the pre-school offers their children. They praise the strong key-person system and the meaningful information provided to them by staff. This helps to extend children's learning at home. Parents explain how staff provide them with books and resources to take home. Parents comment on how these interactions make them feel they have an active part in their children's journey of development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the current arrangements for staff's professional development to help them deliver all aspects of the intended curriculum to the highest standards.