Fence Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are excited and happy when they arrive into pre-school. They are greeted warmly by practitioners. Children enter into conversations with staff and other children immediately. The nurturing manner of staff helps all children feel safe and secure in their surroundings. As a result, children confidently explore and access the well-equipped environment. Additionally, children stand up in front of the group with pride to talk about interests from home or special occasions. Leaders and staff model positive language and respect. Children learn how to resolve conflict and how their actions may have an impact on other's feelings. Children know how to share and what behaviour is expected of them during the day.

Children enjoy spending time in the large, exciting, outdoor area. They use their imagination and senses to enhance their play. Children pick leaves from the plants that they have grown, to add a 'minty smell' to their 'mud pies'. Additionally, they use items from the garden to make a birthday cake out of sand for their friends. Children confidently count candles they add on top and investigate how heavy their creation is. They show good mathematical awareness.

All children use excellent communication skills to express themselves and to ask questions that help them further their understanding. They love to listen to stories that engage their thinking and curiosity. Children repeat new words and are eager to join in with songs, using animated sounds and actions. They are proud when they receive praise for having a go at tasks, encouraging them to continue.

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

• Leaders and staff encourage children to lead their own play as they help support each child to learn and achieve, including those children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). Children with SEND receive high levels of support and are well included in the pre-school. This helps them, like all children, make good progress in their learning and development.
• All staff work hard to get to know each child. This helps them meet children's individual needs and supports their continued progress. However, occasionally some children become disengaged from play at certain times during the day, such as group times. Strategies to adapt routines or activities are not consistently planned to ensure individual children's ages and stages in development are being considered, in order to help them remain fully engaged in play.
• Parents use agreed communication techniques with the setting to keep up to date with their children's learning. They receive consistent support from staff and ideas for them to try with their children. This has been particularly useful for families who have not spent much time in pre-school, since the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents have been able to help continue their children's development and follow their interests at home.
• The manager offers great support to all her staff. She is passionate about evaluating the setting as a team and valuing individual ideas. Staff are encouraged to complete tasks to continually develop their skills and improve their all-round abilities. The manager is working on new ways to check staff's understanding and support them to consistently use their new skills to raise standards further. This is to help staff respond even more swiftly to children's needs.
• Staff assess children's levels of development and encourage children to build on what they already know. For example, children investigate the tadpoles in the garden, learning about the life cycle of a frog. Staff ask children to recall their drawings and photos of the frogspawn. Children talk about how the animal is growing and are excited when they identify little legs. They hop around like frogs, helping each other to move their legs out to the side as they jump.
• Children are well supported to progress on to their next stages in learning, such as starting school. Staff consistently encourage children to complete tasks independently, such as putting on coats and getting themselves a drink of milk or water. Children are encouraged to make their own marks and understand simple letters and sounds in words. This helps their early writing and reading skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan routines within the day that further help consistently engage each child in learning, with consideration of their ages and stages in development
• enhance continual processional development strategies that help embed staff's new knowledge and skills, so that they can apply this in their support for children's care and development.