Greatworth Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted enthusiastically by the staff team. Staff provide a safe, welcoming and stimulating learning environment for children, inside and outside. Children settle quickly into play, are happy and enjoy their time at this friendly pre-school. They are interested in the activities, engage in learning and demonstrate enthusiasm and curiosity in their play. For example, older children eagerly tell staff where their car lands after they push it down the guttering channel they have built. This then becomes a game to see whose car travels the furthest.

Staff engage well with children and have high expectations of their behaviour, and as a result, children behave very well. Children's voices are listened to and valued by the nurturing staff team. Children happily take turns and share toys and often say 'please' and 'thank you' without being prompted. Staff support children's communication and language development appropriately. The manager, who is a good role model for staff, carefully asks open-ended and thought-provoking questions to engage and entice children in conversation. During small-world imaginative play, children tell the manager about who lives in the pretend house and what their characters are doing.

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

• Staff work sensitively with children, particularly children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or those who require extra support. They gather relevant information from parents and use this to adapt their teaching to accommodate the children's varying needs. Staff provide time for children to safely develop the skills and knowledge needed for their future learning.
• The manager is passionate about ensuring that children achieve the best outcomes and are ready for the next stage in their learning, such as starting school. She understands her role and responsibilities to ensure that staff are supported effectively. For example, the manager holds regular supervision sessions with staff. She completes daily observations of staff practice to help identify any training needs and to offer support to enhance their skills. Staff comment that they feel well supported by the manager. Together, they work hard on building a friendly team to create a good atmosphere for children to thrive.
• Staff make the most of spontaneous events to support children's knowledge and understanding of the world. A sudden hailstorm strikes enthusiasm and curiosity in children who are outside. Children squeal with excitement as they attempt to collect the hailstones in containers. The remaining children playing inside were also keen and eager to take part. They talk about how cold the hail is and watch it melt in their hands. Staff extend children's learning. Once the hail stops, staff quickly set up a painting activity with white paint and cotton wool. Staff talk to the children and help them to recall and deepen their knowledge about hailstones as they explore textures and colours.
• Staff know the children well and generally understand what they want them to learn next. However, there are some gaps in staff's knowledge when planning activities and the best ways to implement them with children. In these cases, the planning is not precise enough to build on what children already know and can do.
• Staff help children to develop their small muscles and independence skills from a young age. For example, children confidently pour water and milk from jugs into their cups without spillages. Young children are building on these skills further as they attempt to use knives correctly to spread the butter on their toast.
• Staff plan activities to help children be ready for school. For example, they provide children with letter puzzles, paintbrushes to make marks and story time as different ways to support children's literacy skills. However, staff do not always focus on providing more meaningful activities for the younger children throughout the day. At times, some younger children are less engaged in activities when compared to their older peers.
• Staff understand the importance of working effectively with parents. The manager and staff fully involve parents in all aspects of their child's development and progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to plan and tailor activities more precisely to children's individual learning needs to support them to build on what they already know and can do
• refine planning to develop activities that focus on what younger children need to learn next to help them remain focused on their play and learning.