Fernhurst Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely happy and settled and behave exceptionally well. During the inspection, they helped to tidy up the resources and said 'shall I help you?' when they joined other children at a modelling dough activity. There are high expectations for all children to achieve. Children are very active, inquisitive learners. They independently choose resources and keep on trying to achieve what they set out to do.

Children have an abundance of interesting resources, which inspire them to play, particularly outdoors. For instance, they enthusiastically used water, fresh herbs, and other natural resources to make a pretend cake in a mud kitchen. They learned about life cycles while looking at real tadpoles, caterpillars and duck eggs and used this information to draw and paint pictures.

Children develop excellent pre-reading and writing skills. They often choose to listen to stories and use books to remember and talk about the sequence of events in a story. Children listen very attentively during large-group activities and develop a wide range of vocabulary. For instance, they watched a member of staff showing them how to use a yo-yo, and named words that begin with the same sound, such as yacht and yogurt.

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

• The manager has not notified Ofsted about changes to committee members to ensure all necessary checks are completed. However, committee members do not have any unsupervised contact with children in the pre-school, which minimises any potential impact on their safety and well-being.
• Staff provide a highly ambitious curriculum. They support all children to develop an extensive range of skills, which prepares them exceptionally well for future learning. For example, when children decide to make a 'beanstalk' using connecting pegs, staff encourage them to remember and talk about the story. They ask children questions that support their mathematical development very well.
• Staff consistently use children's individual interests to extend their learning and provide excellent challenge. For instance, in response to children's interest in building things, they have provided additional accessible resources in a log store to support this learning. They show children photos of past activities and use their comments to continually adapt and improve the excellent resources and learning environment.
• Staff have an exceptional knowledge and understanding of children's individual needs. They provide children with excellent role models, particularly in relation to their positive communication and interaction with children. Staff patiently meet children's individual emotional needs and help them learn how to behave appropriately.
• Staff skilfully support children's communication and language development. They successfully develop children's confidence to ask questions and share what they know. For instance, children said 'the ducklings are growing' when staff shone a torch on an egg taken from an incubator.
• Staff provide an exceptional range of resources that inspire children to make discoveries and learn. They show them how to use the resources and give them time to practise what they learn. For instance, children learn how to operate a bubble machine and how to work with their friends to balance a see-saw airplane.
• The manager and staff regularly share information with parents to meet children's individual needs. They know all the children very well and are highly dedicated to helping them make the best possible progress.
• The special educational needs coordinator has an extensive understanding of her role and responsibilities. She gives top priority to pursuing early intervention for children. As a result, children receive the additional support they need from staff and other agencies to reduce gaps in their learning. For example, in their speech and language development and to develop their self-confidence.
• The manager works closely with the school, where the pre-school is located. She organises time for children to visit the reception class they will attend, where they get to meet their new teachers. Parents state that staff provide a nurturing environment and their children's move to school 'is seamless'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider must:

• provide Ofsted with the necessary information about new committee members to enable suitability checks to be completed. (by 26 April 2022)