Fobbing Village Pre-school Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish in this extremely welcoming pre-school, where children are at the heart of every decision. Practitioners demonstrate they know the children exceptionally well. They treat all children as unique individuals, developing kind and caring relationships with them. When children arrive, their friends come over to welcome them into the pre-school and invite them into their play. When children leave, they demonstrate impeccable manners by telling the practitioners to have a nice day. Children are happy and engrossed throughout the day in the many exciting activities on offer to them. They display high levels of confidence. The well-planned environment allows children to make choices about how they spend their time.

There are high expectations for all children. Practitioners ensure they deliver a well-thought-out and purposeful curriculum. This curriculum has been devised around the needs of the current cohort of children. This has a great impact on all children and the excellent progress they make. Practitioners plan enticing experiences and activities to build on children's prior experiences. The theme of the role-play area is linked to children's current life experiences. This allows the children to explore their feelings and thoughts in a safe space.

Practitioners are excellent role models. They offer children encouragement and praise, while also giving them time and space to do things for themselves. Children show delight when they receive acknowledgement of achievements in the form of 'wow moments'. They proudly show these to their friends and practitioners, who offer them an abundance of praise. This helps raise their self-esteem and confidence. Practitioners have implemented various age-appropriate strategies to support children in regulating their behaviour and keeping themselves safe. As a result, children's behaviour is exemplary.

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

• The passion and commitment of practitioners influences all aspects of the pre-school. The team are highly reflective. Careful consideration goes into all decisions in the pre-school to ensure they benefit the children. The differing ages and needs of the children are always considered. Practitioners report their morale is high. They are motivated to provide excellent care for children. This is clearly evident in their practice.
• Practitioners gather a wealth of information about the children before they start. This enables them to plan for children's individual needs immediately. Children's progress is diligently tracked as the manager is aware of the benefits of early intervention. Personalised strategies are introduced rapidly to help narrow any identified gaps. Parents are fully informed about their children's development at all times and are advised how they can support their children at home. Support is sought from other professionals when required. This ensures that all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make excellent progress from their starting points.
• Practitioners are highly responsive to children's interests, such as when children display repeatable patterns of behaviour known as 'schemas'. Practitioners attend training to enrich their knowledge and adapt the environment to facilitate this important stage of play.
• Practitioners skilfully use their interactions to enhance children's experiences and develop their knowledge. For example, when children decide to become ice-cream vendors an adult joins their play. She seamlessly introduces colour related language and mathematical concepts relating to counting and money. She suggests a craft activity the children could complete to enhance their play and development further. When in the doctor's surgery role-play area, practitioners introduce mark-making opportunities and model medical related language. The children can then be heard using the modelled language and concepts in their play. These interactions ensure high levels of engagement and constantly deepen and expand children's knowledge in a relaxed and natural way.
• Supporting children's personal, social, and emotional development is a high priority. This is embedded before children start with home visits. Practitioners use these visits to form bonds with the whole family and find out about children's prior experiences. This helps them support the children from their very first day effectively. Practitioners have considered the impact that COVID-19 has had on children's emotional development. They have attended training and implemented age-appropriate strategies to support the children. This includes using stories that allow for feelings to be introduced. The concept of 'emotional buckets' has been introduced and children delight in filling up 'buckets' by doing kind things for others.
• Partnership working with parents is exceptional. Clear lines of communication, including detailed verbal handovers and regular meetings, ensure a two-way flow of information about children's development and progress. The information helps practitioners decide what to teach children. Parents appreciate that practitioners know their children as individuals and tailor learning to their specific needs. Parents are frequently provided with activities they can do to support and extend their child's learning.