First Steps To Learning Pre-School & Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted by the kind and friendly staff as they arrive at the setting. They settle quickly and are eager to start their day. Children benefit from a broad range of fun, exciting and educational activities, which capture their interest and curiosity extremely well. Staff know children well and have high expectations for their learning and behaviour. As a result, children show a positive approach towards new experiences and behave very well.

Babies show curiosity as they explore messy play activities. For instance, they enjoy exploring bugs in crumbly mud and use tools such as magnifying glasses and tweezers to investigate. This helps to develop their interest in the wider world. Toddlers participate in decorating plant pots and enjoy discussing how plants need sunlight and water to grow. This helps to develop their creativity and understanding of the world.

Pre-school children show great interest in listening to familiar stories. such as 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt', and receive excellent support to recall the key elements of the story. They also develop their imagination and communication skills as they explore small-world themed trays that complement the story.

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

• The pre-school is run by an ambitious and dedicated leadership team that show good commitment to ongoing improvement. For instance, there is a clear development plan in place for future enhancements, and the views of children, parents and other professionals are incorporated effectively into new initiatives and plans.
• Staff understand what children already know and what their individual interests are. They then use this information to carefully plan activities, to help them develop their knowledge and skills. Staff have highly effective systems in place for monitoring children's progress and regularly share their findings with parents. It is evident that children make good progress in relation to their starting points.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive excellent support. There is a strong culture of working in close partnership with a range of other professionals to review children's personal targets and tailor individual activities to foster their development. This is a real strength of the pre-school.
• Children have frequent opportunities to explore the local community. For instance, they go on trips to the local supermarket, where they have opportunities to learn about fruits and the value of money. Staff then support children to make smoothies with the fruits they buy. This process helps to instil responsibility and ownership into the children.
• Children have good opportunities to learn about different backgrounds and diversity. For instance, they celebrate a range of cultural events throughout the year, and staff help them to develop respectful attitudes about lives different to their own.
• Children enjoy participating in fundraising events. For instance, they like making cakes and selling their goods in the local community. This helps to develop their skills of independence and teaches them positive messages about the importance of helping others.
• Partnerships with parents are well established. Parents express high levels of appreciation for the staff and experiences their children receive. They state that staff are kind, supportive and that their children love attending.
• Children enjoy participating in forest school activities at a local park. For instance, they participate in nature trails and collecting leaves for art projects. Despite this, staff do not always plan a fully broad outdoor curriculum in the nursery's outdoor space.
• Overall, children have good opportunities to hear new language and extend their vocabulary. However, on occasion, some staff do not question children in a way that fully promotes their thinking skills.
• Leaders and staff are reflective, and there is a good programme of professional development in place. Furthermore, staff receive ongoing coaching and mentoring in order to promote a good quality of education for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to develop the outdoor learning space, to provide children with more opportunities to engage in a wider range of activities that support their development across all areas of learning
• build on the consistency of some staff member's interactions with children to strengthen their questioning techniques, in order to extend children's thinking skills further.