Hauxton Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending this welcoming setting and build strong bonds with the nurturing staff. Staff take time to get to know children. They treat each child as an individual, offering well-tailored support and activities that interest and stimulate children. Staff are positive role models, demonstrating an enthusiastic, calm approach. Children mirror this and quickly become eager, confident learners. For example, children playing in the outdoor kitchen select items to 'make pancakes'. They add these to pans and bowls, persevering and finding larger containers when these fill up and tip over.

Children mirror staff's good example and are kind, caring and respectful. Well-planned daily activities and discussions successfully support children in explaining and labelling their emotions and understanding how these affect others. Children play well together, listening to one another, cooperating and sharing resources. Children gain a good understanding of healthy lifestyle choices. For instance, they talk about how different foods affect the body, referring to posters and displays they have made that illustrate this. Staff check all areas to ensure that children can play safely. Their ongoing explanations aid children in understanding safety. For example, when playing with sand, children remember to be careful not to spray this near others.

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

• Enthusiastic staff are well supported by the committee of trustees. They are committed to developing the pre-school further and offering children the best care they can. Staff receive regular, effective supervision, enabling them to develop their practice and support all children to make good progress.
• Staff understand the pre-school's curriculum and work well together to implement this. They understand what children are learning and what their next logical steps are. They offer children interesting play opportunities that reflect their interests and needs. Thorough monitoring means that any weaker areas in children's development are quickly addressed. Staff's good understanding of each child helps to ensure that additional funding is used effectively to promote children's development.
• Staff support children well in developing their language and communication skills. During group times, children know that they need to take their turn in discussions. Staff encourage children to use their language skills, for example, to describe what they are cooking in the role-play restaurant. Staff introduce new vocabulary, such as 'sweet and sour' when looking at a menu, offering children the opportunity to use these new words as they play.
• All children demonstrate their enjoyment of books. They frequently choose books to look at independently and often share these with their friends. They thoroughly enjoy group story times and staff are skilled in capturing children's attention. For example, children follow staff around the room as they act out a story. Children remember the words and sequence of the story, laughing as they eagerly join in with the loud sneeze at the end.
• Children develop essential skills that support them when they move to school. They listen carefully and follow instructions. For example, they listen intently as their friends choose actions for the 'jumping beans', following instructions as they stretch up high for the 'string bean' and wobble for the 'jelly bean'.
• Children enjoy their interactions with staff and these are usually of a good quality. However, this is not consistent and staff do not always fully support children to build on their play and extend their development to the optimum.
• Parents speak highly of the pre-school and praise the supportive staff team. Staff communicate well with parents, using information provided by them to build a comprehensive picture of children's development and to inform activity planning. Staff provide details about what children have been doing at the pre-school, enabling parents to extend children's learning at home.
• Staff usually encourage children's independence. For example, children make independent choices about what to play with and wash their hands before eating. However, on occasion, staff do things for children that they could do themselves, such as putting on children's coats for them and wiping their faces. This confuses children and does not fully promote their independence.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop their teaching skills further, helping them to consistently extend each child's learning to the maximum
• support staff to continuously follow the pre-school's agreed approaches to promoting children's independence.