Fulford Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are very nurturing and caring towards all children. They notice immediately when children become slightly unsettled. Staff provide them with lots of comfort and love. This helps to foster strong relationships between children and the staff who care for them. Children thoroughly enjoy themselves at the pre-school. Babies have lots of opportunities to develop the muscles and strength in their bodies, through the use of 'tummy time'. They also have lots of space to practise their physical development skills, such as rolling over, reaching out, pulling themselves up and crawling. Older children enjoy creative experiences, such as painting. They use a range of tools to make marks and some even practise attempting to write letters from their name.

Children are flourishing at the pre-school. The curriculum is inviting and rich. Children of all ages display very positive attitudes towards their learning. On the very rare occasion where children stop engaging, staff use what they know about the children, such as their interests, to help them re-engage swiftly. Older children enjoy dressing up. Staff provide tips to them about how they can assist with dressing. They praise the children for what they do well. Staff also help to support children to solve their conflicts. This helps children to learn right from wrong. Children behave well.

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

• The manager is reflective. She uses the views of others to help make continuous improvements to the overall quality of the pre-school. On the rare occasion where complaints are raised, leaders take action to respond to them appropriately, offering an outcome to parents.
• Staff find out children's starting points from parents. They then continue to observe and assess the children's development over time. Staff use this information to identify gaps in children's learning and to develop targets. Where concerns are raised about a child's development, staff work well alongside parents and other professionals. This helps to ensure all children make good progress in their learning and they receive the timely support they require.
• The curriculum is sequenced well to build on what children know and can do over time. There is a good mixture of adult-led and child-led activities on offer. Staff use what they know about the children to help plan an array of learning experiences, which capture children's interest. However, at times staff do not ensure that all children have sufficient challenge as they access activities. Consequently, some children are able to achieve tasks with ease.
• There is a very clear focus on supporting children's communication and language development. Staff surround the children with language as they play. They use lots of animation and expressions as they sing or read. This helps children to become fully immersed into the learning experience. Babies smile and laugh with staff while older children excitedly join in with actions and shout out key words from familiar rhymes and stories.
• Babies are fed their bottles on demand and older children regularly help themselves to water. Children bring their own packed lunch into the pre-school and staff work with parents to support them to offer balanced meals for their children. Staff provide breakfast and snack for the children. However, leaders have made a recent change to the type of snacks offered to children and this is no longer balanced well enough.
• Parents and grandparents explain that they can see the progress their child or grandchild has made in their development. Staff share and gather key information with parents about their children. Most parents speak highly about the type of feedback they receive from staff about their child's daily activities and progress. Leaders are consistently reviewing this in order to help further improve the effectiveness of partnership working with parents.
• Staff speak highly about the support they receive from leaders. They have meetings with leaders to talk about their practice or performance and how this could be improved. Leaders offer staff a range of training to help further improve their confidence and skills.
• Staff are very positive role models to the children. They speak to the children with high levels of respect. Consequently, children are respectful towards one another. They eagerly offer to help their peers during activities.
• Leaders have made a recent change to nappy change procedures and this is now implemented well in practice. Staff are very attuned to individual children's routines and care needs. They quickly recognise and respond to children when they require changing.
• Staff complete detailed records of any accidents and inform parents. Leaders have an ongoing risk assessment in place. They regularly make changes to ensure the pre-school remain safe, secure and suitable for children at all times.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• take steps to ensure meals offered to the children, particularly at snack time, are balanced
• support staff to ensure all children receive sufficient challenge as they play, in order to help develop children's thinking and knowledge further.