Grange Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from a staff team that nurtures every child as a unique individual. The impact of this shines through. For example, children are extremely polite and delight in introducing themselves and their friends to the inspector. They sit down and discuss their families, traditions and backgrounds, and listen to what their peers say with genuine interest. Children's behaviour is exemplary. They illustrate this as they create a hairdressing salon and negotiate different prices for a cut, colour and blow dry. Staff consistently give children the support they need so they flourish and succeed in what they want to achieve. They skilfully use visual displays, such as pictures of different hairstyles, to engage children in discussion. This particularly supports non-verbal children and those who speak English as an additional language.

Children demonstrate high levels of perseverance and are extremely motivated to complete their goals. For instance, older children demonstrate excellent control and practise different skills, such as turning upside down as they climb up ropes. This builds on their core strength exceptionally well. Their younger peers learn to take safe risks. They carefully negotiate their way over the climbing wall, showing outstanding coordination for their age. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make excellent progress from their starting points.

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

• Staff meticulously assess children's progress and swiftly identify any concerns. They embed the learning intentions for all children into the exceptionally well-planned curriculum. Staff work extremely closely with parents and the highly experienced special educational needs coordinator to provide outstanding early intervention. They ensure all children have every opportunity to reach their full potential.
• Staff promote children's mathematical understanding exceptionally well. For instance, children show excellent problem-solving skills. They follow picture instructions and persevere until they successfully link one end of the train track to the other. Children think critically about differences in size. They make predictions as to how many train carriages will fit onto the track at the station.
• Children's understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles is outstanding. They confidently discuss the life cycle of the fruit they have planted. Children passionately describe how the flowers on their strawberry plants provide nectar for bees, and with water and sunlight will grow into delicious fruit. They explain that vegetables contain vitamins and eating these daily will help them to grow strong and healthy.
• The manager and staff team have high aspirations for all children. Parents recognise this and say that staff nurture their children and tailor the support they provide for each child. They describe the outstanding progress their children have made, and say that staff offer them extensive advice to help them support children's learning at home.
• Staff are highly skilled at supporting children's vocabulary and communication development. They grasp every moment to model words and extend children's sentences. Consequently, gaps in children's developing speech and language close rapidly. For example, children delight in exploring textures as they walk through sand, jelly and over shells. They make facial expressions and excitedly exclaim, 'It feels crunchy', actively describing how it feels. Staff seize this opportunity to engage children further in discussion and ask them where they might find these different materials in the wider world.
• Staff benefit from a management team that fosters their professional development. They have attended substantial amounts of training and demonstrate outstanding practice. For example, staff recently shared their new knowledge of promoting healthy lifestyles with parents. This has had a significant impact on the food parents provide for their children. On the day of the inspection, children discussed and thoroughly enjoyed the nutritious food in their lunch boxes.
• Children demonstrate excellent independence skills for their young age. They take responsibility for small tasks and sweep up sand without prompting. Older children take their younger peers under their wing and help them to put on their indoor shoes. They are incredibly kind and use the visual displays at the cleaning station to demonstrate and help them to blow their nose. Children manage their personal care needs exceptionally well. They independently and without prompting apply hand gel and talk about the importance of removing germs.