Haydon Meadow Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children happily enter the pre-school. Staff put them at ease and make the areas inviting, with stimulating activities and interesting resources. Children are eager to explore and settle in well. Staff are attentive to children's care needs and promote their well-being. Children learn to follow toileting routines independently. They are prompted to drink water to stay hydrated and wear their sun hats on a hot summer's day, as well as taking time to rest if they feel too hot. Parents say children very much enjoy attending.

Staff plan targeted activities to meet children's individual needs. Children enjoy making play dough. Staff discuss ingredients and how the dough is made. Children take turns to stir the mixture. They cut the formed dough, learning from staff's clear patient teaching how to hold and use the scissors. Children develop their dexterity as they mould the dough, imaginatively exploring with it. They talk about their intentions, discussing making a pizza or pushing their fingers in to make marks for a face. Staff provide an interesting curriculum to introduce new experiences and concepts. Children learn about the seasons, such as the summer. They enjoy pretending to make ice creams. Staff help them think about where these may need to go, discussing hot and cold and putting the ice creams in the freezer. Children make good progress and persevere with new skills.

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

• Children gain confidence to do things independently. Staff give them useful tips as they encourage children to put on and take off dressing-up items themselves. Children put spread on their toast, pour their milk and then clear their things away after their snack. They develop their sense of responsibility well and follow routines suitably. They join staff to tidy away the toys and activities, they get their lunch bags and sit down to eat with the other children. Children develop skills in readiness for their move on to school.
• Parents say they are grateful for the staff's input on progressing children's development. Staff work in partnership with parents to meet children's needs and link with local schools that children move on to. They work to provide a consistent approach to children's care and learning.
• At times, staff pick up on children's interests well as they play and develop their exploration further. For example, as children stack pretend ice creams staff discuss the height of these, model useful maths language and encourage children to count the items. However, at other times staff do not always adapt their approach or the items available, so that children can follow their interests fully and extend their exploration and learning.
• Key persons regularly undertake thorough assessments of children's development and progress. They outline skills children need to learn next, noticing gaps in learning and any areas children are at risk of falling behind in. They liaise with parents and seek support from outside professionals to get children the help they need.
• Staff have recently introduced strategies to help children learn how to recognise and regulate their emotions, this is already making a difference and helping children to calm and focus their energy. Staff offer timely support and clear explanations to help children appreciate safety boundaries. Children learn to share items and interact with each other appropriately; this includes those who require particularly perceptive additional support.
• Staff give children clear explanations and use boards and practical tasks during group times to develop their listening and attention skills. They also use additional resources such as pictures and signs to help children's understanding. At times, staff focus on building children's language skills well. They encourage children's conversation skills and younger children to learn new words. However, at other times they do not fully encourage and facilitate children that are less confident or who speak English as an additional language to express themselves.
• Staff foster children's interest in books and their literacy development. Children usefully build their hand strength in readiness for early writing as they use tools, such as pipettes, brushes and pencils. They also learn to recognise their names and key letters of the alphabet, such as their initial letter. Staff provide books for children to borrow, helping extend children's focus on books and stories at home. In pre-school, children listen to stories as a group and know characters and key aspects. Children select books, independently looking at the pictures, younger children bring them to staff to look at with them.
• Leaders show dedication to the children and families that attend, supporting staff closely and evaluating and improving the provision. The company has expanded rapidly over the last couple of years. Leaders are developing their senior leadership team and have suitably added key members recently, to support practice across all the settings in their group.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• adapt activities and teaching more readily to capitalise upon children's interests and exploration and extend their skills as much as possible
• support staff to fully encourage and facilitate all children to express themselves and develop their communication skills more rapidly.