Embsay with Eastby Pre-School Playgroup

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish at this unique pre-school and are extremely happy and settled. They develop trusting bonds with their key person and the staff team, and show they feel safe. Children are provided with high-quality care in a calm and stimulating home-from-home learning environment. They eagerly go off to find their friends and become deeply engrossed in their play. Staff recognise children's unique characters and nurture their specific skills and talents. Children's behaviour is impeccable. They are respectful and caring towards each other. Children manage their feelings and emotions as they play sociably together. Staff are very positive role models and have very high expectations for children's behaviour.

The curriculum is extremely well planned. It runs seamlessly through the age groups, allowing children to build and extend their skills. Children demonstrate a can-do attitude. They persevere and show deep levels of concentration as they learn new skills. Developing children's communication skills is a key focus in the pre-school. Children thoroughly enjoy listening to stories and exploring books independently. Staff skilfully use enjoyable songs and rhymes to engage them. Children learn from their clear speech and the repetition of sounds. For example, older children confidently re-tell the 'Owl Babies' story to the inspector. They repeat new vocabulary as they practise 'swooping' with the owl props to support the story.

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

• Children make outstanding progress from their starting points. Teaching is consistently of the highest quality. Children's progress is meticulously monitored to ensure that any potential gaps in their learning are quickly identified and managed. Staff use children's interests to plan their specific learning and development. Activities are successfully differentiated to meet the different ages and learning intentions of children taking part. For example, staff give younger children more time to think and respond to questions.
• Children move very confidently between inside and outside and make their own play choices from the interesting variety of activities on offer. The outside areas are used particularly well to enrich children's learning. For example, children plant and tend to their vegetables, pick and wash the produce they grow and eat it for their snack.
• Numeracy skills are well supported across the pre-school. Staff introduce mathematical language and use it effectively throughout the day. Children use positional language. For example, 'under and over' and 'above and below' as they play with malleable materials, including dough, mud and water. Children aged two delight in helping staff and are very confident and not afraid to ask for help.
• The staff capture many opportunities for supporting children's thinking and language skills throughout the daily routine. Extremely skilful questioning from staff encourages children to think critically at every opportunity. They talk about the 'ingredients' needed to make pancakes and work collaboratively together, listening to each other's suggestions. This helps to build children's positive self-esteem and confidence.
• The highly skilled, well-qualified and experienced staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities exceptionally well. They access specific training to continually develop their professional skills and improve their already excellent practice. For example, knowledge gained from recent speech and language training has been used to benefit children with specific language needs.
• Children enjoy plenty of fresh air and exercise. They have many opportunities to be physical active. For example, they develop their physical skills as they climb, jump and throw balls. Children develop the small muscles in their hands to begin to write. Children are exceptionally well prepared for the next stage in their learning, including school.
• Parents describe the pre-school as 'amazing' and staff 'go above and beyond'. They highly commend the staff about the help, advice and support they receive, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. They cannot praise the staff enough for keeping in touch with them through phone calls and emails. Parents know what their child needs to learn next and how to support their ongoing learning at home.
• The management committee fully understands its responsibilities. Arrangements for the supervision and coaching of staff are in place. The highly reflective manager and staff team continually strive to deliver the very best experiences for families. The targeted training they attend has enabled them to ensure the curriculum focuses sharply on the children's individual learning preferences and interests.