Green Lane Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the pre-school happy. They leave their parents or carers with ease and greet the nurturing staff team with a big smile and a cuddle. Children are eager to play and motivated to learn because staff provide them with an attractive and well-resourced learning environment. Staff know children well and make regular assessments of what they know and can do. They use this information to plan an ambitious curriculum which builds on children's knowledge and skills. All children make good progress from their starting points.

Children are very confident and behave exceptionally well. They know what is expected from them because staff offer gentle reminders about their expectations throughout the day. Children are kind to their friends, share and take turns. They speak in a gentle and respectful way because staff model this during their interactions. Older children independently manage their self-care. They understand the importance of good hygiene and wash their hands at regular intervals throughout the day. Children develop good communication and language skills. Staff engage them in meaningful conversations. For example, they ask children to describe the mini-beast house they made. Children listen attentively to stories read by enthusiastic staff. They demonstrate their understanding of the story and mimic the movements that animals make. Staff encourage children to recall words from the story. For example, children pretend to tip toe and repeat familiar words from the story as they excitedly move around.

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

• The leadership and management of this inclusive pre-school is strong. They are passionate about their roles. Together, they strive to deliver high quality care and education to all children at all times. The experienced manager and her committed staff team successfully weave the pre-school's Christian ethos into everyday practice. They provide children with experiences which effectively underpin these values.
• Excellent partnerships are in place with the link primary school that most children go on to attend. The nominated individual of the pre-school is also the head of this school. She and key staff regularly visit the pre-school to get to know children and their families. Children are very well prepared for the move to school. In the summer term, reception teachers visit the pre-school to get to know children in their own surroundings. Staff share a wide range of information with teachers about children's progress to help support their future learning. They take children to social and educational events at the school, for example children attend regular activities with the qualified sports coaches. This helps them to become familiar with the new environment and gain confidence in different surroundings.
• Staff provide children with a good balance of adult-led and child-initiated play. They know what they want children to learn from planned activities. For example, to further develop their communication and language skills and understand the importance of good oral health. However, on occasions, staffs' interactions with children do not fully support their learning intentions for the planned activity to help them make even better progress.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. They work with parents and other professionals to share information and provide children with SEND targeted support and care.
• Overall, staff support children who speak English as an additional language well. During induction, they seek key words in children's home language to support their understanding at pre-school. Staff greet children in their home language at registration time, helping them to develop a strong sense of self. However, staff are yet to provide children with enough experiences to hear and use their home language during their play to further support their communication and language skills.
• The knowledgeable manager knows her staff team very well because she works alongside them each day. Staff attend training around their interests and development needs to improve their already good knowledge and skills. The well retained staff team are very happy in their roles. They speak highly of leaders and comment on the excellent levels of support they receive for both their professional and personal life.
• Staff form good relationships with parents. They tailor settling in sessions to meet children and families individual needs. Staff keep parents well informed about children's progress. They speak to them at the start and end of the day, add information about children's achievements to online learning records and invite parents to attend one to one meetings. Parents are highly complimentary about the service the pre-school provides. They comment on the wonderful staff, their great communication and how happy their children are to attend.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staffs' interactions to closely support the learning intentions of planned activities
• provide children with even more experiences to hear and use their home language in play, to further support their communication and language skills.