Firestation Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a wonderfully warm, inclusive environment that helps children and their families to feel valued. Children bond with staff, and they settle very quickly due to the trusting relationships. They are happy and engaged in their play and learning throughout the day due to the level of support they receive. They also snuggle happily with staff when they need extra support.

Staff successfully help children to talk about their feelings and emotions. Children confidently join in at group time. They say they are happy when other children share with them and that their parents make them feel loved. They go on to say what makes them sad and what they sometimes find scary. They know that they will be listened to and that their ideas and feelings are valued. Staff are proactive in helping children learn the skills and knowledge to keep themselves safe and well.

Children become used to following meaningful routines and listening to the adults. This supports their learning and their excellent behaviour. Children who struggle with group situations are sensitively supported until they are able to re-engage. Parents confirm that the support for their children's behaviour has been phenomenal and that their children see preschool as a 'safe place'.

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

• The well-established staff team is developing a clear expertise in supporting children with additional care and learning needs. The manager works tirelessly, linking with other agencies where appropriate, to make sure that children's needs are fully supported. Nothing is left to chance in relation to children's individual needs and circumstances. This means that such children are as settled as possible and make as much progress as they are able.
• Staff provide interesting learning experiences that all children access at their own level. Staff reinforce children's learning by helping them to remember what they have learned. For example, the most-able children spontaneously sing 'Bring your bat and ball,' when asked how they remember the sound 'b'. They also remember that they learned about their sunflower seeds needing water to help them to grow.
• The curriculum on the whole is very effective and children make particularly good progress in their language and communication skills. Parents of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or who speak English as an additional language say their children's language has improved greatly since attending the setting. Children love songs and stories; they learn a great many songs that support their learning in other areas. For example, they sing about how to wash their hands properly and about the sounds of the letters that they know.
• Children's learning is monitored to make sure that they are all making as much progress as possible. Nevertheless, there are occasional gaps in children's knowledge. Staff have not fully addressed why some of the most-able children can recognise familiar letters, yet do not recognise numbers as easily.
• Parents are helped to support their children's learning effectively. For example, communication and behaviour techniques are successfully shared with parents for consistency and continuity. However, staff do not routinely share the words for new songs with parents. This means some parents are not able to help their children as much as they could.
• Children's good health is promoted. They love being active outside in the fresh air. They enjoy fresh vegetables for snack and know that they need to drink water regularly to keep their bodies and brains hydrated.
• Staff help children to become increasingly independent. The most-able children have learned to open their own lunch boxes and manage their personal hygiene in preparation for the transition to school. Even the youngest children independently get a tissue for their nose and put it in the bin.
• Staff use praise and encouragement effectively to keep children positive and motivated. This means that children learn to persevere at a task. For example, they concentrate for quite some time until their jigsaw is complete. Children are proud of their successes and eager to start the next task.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to monitor what children have learned and remembered so that the curriculum delivery is even more successful across all areas of learning, including mathematics
• consider also how parents can be helped even more to support their children's learning.