Heyside Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a home-from-home environment where children feel happy and safe. Children wave their parents off at the front door and greet staff with cuddles. They cannot contain their excitement to play with their friends. Children show high levels of confidence and have a strong sense of belonging. Staff support children's personal, social and emotional development well. They are good role models and spend time helping children to manage their own feelings and emotions. Children talk about what makes them feel happy and excited. They look at books that reflect different feelings and they explain how to be a kind friend. Children behave well and show positive attitudes towards their learning.

Staff have high expectations for children's achievements. They provide children with an ambitious curriculum, that builds on what they know and can do. Older children immerse themselves into deep imagination while enacting the roles of chefs. They pretend to make food and discuss the ingredients. Younger children search for bugs outdoors and giggle while splashing in water. Staff encourage children to be independent. They help children to practise putting on their own coats. Children help to tidy toys away and take care of their belongings. They develop good skills in readiness for their next steps in learning, including their eventual move on to school.

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

• Leaders want the best of outcomes for children and their families. They reflect on the quality of the setting and put improvement plans in place. For example, leaders have worked hard to redevelop the play environment to improve children's interest in reading. This has been highly effective and children relish looking at books. They talk about the characters and are eager to share books with staff.
• In the main, staff provide children with a broad curriculum. They use what they know about children to keep them engaged and motivated to learn. Children enjoy the array of activities. They show fascination while making dough and while playing with sand. However, staff do not give the same attention to detail when implementing the curriculum for mathematics, as they do for other areas of learning. This means that children's experiences to develop concepts, such as counting, are not consistently embedded across the curriculum.
• Staff support children's large-muscle skills incredibly well. They provide activities to enhance children's balance and coordination skills. For example, children enjoy using the climbing frame. They show excellent physical dexterity while completing an assault course. Children are confident to learn new skills, such as how to walk up muddy hills without slipping.
• In the main, staff support children to be confident communicators. They speak clearly to children and teach them new words. However, some staff ask children questions in quick succession and do not allow them enough time to respond. This does not support children's communication and language skills effectively.
• Staff teach children about the world around them. They help children to gain a good understanding of who they are and where they come from. Children talk about some of the ways that make them unique. For example, they look at their reflections and highlight how their eye, hair and skin colour is sometimes different to that of their friends. Children develop a good awareness of what it is like to live in modern Britain.
• Care practices are good. Staff teach children about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. Children talk about the significance of eating fruit and vegetables. Staff model tooth brushing to children and sit with them while they clean their teeth. Children talk about visiting the dentist and gain an early awareness of good oral health.
• Staff teach children about the importance of respect, acceptance and tolerance. Children know what staff expect from them. They show care and kindness towards others. Staff help children to understand the importance of fundraising and charity work. Children help to collect food for the local food bank and learn about people who are less fortunate.
• The support in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who speak English as an additional language is good. Leaders ensure that intervention plans are precise and are monitored with rigour. Children make good progress from their initial starting points.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine the implementation of the curriculum, to broaden children's understanding of mathematical concepts
• provide children with more time to think and respond to questions, to better support their communication and language skills.