Fairfield Preschool Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive with excitement at this vibrant and caring setting. Staff offer care and compassion to all children. This helps them to feel safe and supports positive relationships. Staff create inviting learning spaces for children to explore each day. Children confidently make choices about where they would like to play and invite others to join them. They demonstrate kindness towards their peers and use positive language and good manners. Children follow the routines of the setting and happily take part in tidy-up times.

Staff provide opportunities for children to develop their strength and coordination. Children practise using scissors when creating models. They learn how to handle and use them safely. Children use their imaginations to create animals out of cardboard. They talk about the colours and staff help them to practise mixing colours to find the correct shade that they need.

Children learn how to live healthy lifestyles. They pour themselves water from cylinders containing fresh strawberries or cucumber. At snack time, children use tongs to select a variety of fruits and vegetable snacks. Children are offered opportunities to explore foods from other countries and cultures through tasting and cooking activities.

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

• Leaders and managers have developed a curriculum where children take part in first-hand experiences to immerse them in new learning. For instance, they learn about growth and life cycles through observing and caring for eggs as they hatch into chicks. Children confidently use resources to talk about the life cycles of frogs and the changes that take place as they grow and develop. Parents are invited to bring in their family pets to develop children's wider knowledge of animal, such as rabbits and tortoises.
• Staff and managers get to know children very well. They conduct appropriate assessments of children in a timely manner and take swift action if they have concerns about a child's development. Staff sequence their teaching effectively to build on what children already know and can do. This helps all children to make good progress across all seven areas of learning.
• Books are valued as essential learning resources in this nurturing setting. Children are immersed in imaginative learning opportunities as they journey through stories with their peers and adults. Children join in with familiar stories as staff pause for them to finish sentences. They discover that they can learn facts from non-fiction books and discuss this with adults and peers. For instance, when creating a snake, children talk about their fangs containing venom.
• Children are keen and active learners. They develop their social skills through opportunities to gather with peers in small-group learning. Children demonstrate good listening and attention as they listen to others as they share their news. They confidently stand up to talk about their recent holidays and answer questions from their friends.
• Parents speak very highly of the pre-school team and the care and education that they provide. They feel confident that their children are safe and loved. Staff work with parents to support effective toilet training routines. Parents are taken on a journey through their child's learning. They receive consistent communication about activities and learning that takes place and how they can continue this learning at home.
• Staff and managers work closely with other agencies to support children's learning needs and their transitions into the next stage of their education. They recognise the importance of partnership working with experts, such as acting on advice from speech and language therapists. Children are prepared well for their transitions to school. They explore the uniforms that they will wear and take part in regular visits to the school grounds.
• Leaders and managers are passionate about offering an inclusive service to all children. They have ambitious plans for the future of the setting and share these with the staff. Staff feel valued and speak highly of the management team. They receive appropriate mandatory training and regular supervision opportunities. However, training is not always consistently monitored to help staff to extend children's learning to the next level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• monitor effectiveness of training to enhance staff understanding of how to take teaching and learning to the next level.