Holgate Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from the warm and welcoming environment staff create for them. They are greeted by friendly staff and come into the setting happy and ready for their day. Children show that they have trusting and secure relationships with staff. They seek staff out for reassurance and to celebrate their accomplishments. Children show delight from the positive praise that they receive. For example, staff praise children when they successfully adapt obstacle courses to make them safe. Younger children show delight as staff celebrate when they manage to push extra large hula hoops down the garden for the first time. This helps to keep children motivated to learn.

Staff take the time to get to know each child and their families from their starting points. They gather key information from parents about their child. Staff use this to plan familiar care routines and activities according to their interests and individual learning needs. For instance, staff support children effectively to develop their communication and language skills from their starting points. They provide a narrative and introduce new words during children's play. Staff read stories in an engaging manner and sing nursery rhymes to children daily. They speak clearly to children and give them time to repeat words back to them. These strategies help children to become competent communicators and expands their vocabulary.

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

• The key-person system is effective. Staff know the children in their care very well. They complete regular observations and assess the level of progress children are making. They use this to identify what children need to learn next. Staff plan appropriate next step learning targets that help to build on what children already know and can do, overall.
• Staff have good relationships with parents and external professionals involved in a child's care. They share information between them effectively, such as about the levels of progress a child is making in each setting they attend. Together, they plan next step learning targets and strategies according to the child's individual needs. This helps to promote a consistent approach and ensure children's needs are met in all settings they attend. However, on occasions, some staff do not promptly implement these learning targets and strategies in practise to ensure children's emerging needs are consistently met.
• Staff give high priority to children's health. They provide children with daily opportunities to exercise and develop their physical skills during outdoor play. Children enjoy a range of well-balanced, healthy and nutritious snacks. Staff have recently introduced new routines at snack times, which help to promote children's hygiene and independence. Children become increasingly independent in preparation for their eventual move to school.
• Children develop good mathematical skills. Staff encourage them to use different mathematical language in their play, such as counting the number of wheels on a car. Children manipulate play dough to make different shapes using shape mats. Staff teach younger children the names of shapes. Older children learn about the different properties of each shape, for example.
• Staff provide children with a range of opportunities to learn about the similarities and differences between each other. However, they do not yet plan activities that help to develop children's understanding of the world beyond their own experiences. The provider is aware of this and has plans to expand on this area of the curriculum. However, these plans are in their infancy and have not yet been implemented in practice.
• Transitions for children are well planned and supported. The setting has strong links with local schools children attend. They invite teaching staff into the setting and provide information about children's development. This is a good opportunity for children to meet their new teachers and helps prepare them for their move to school.
• Leaders have implemented effective supervisions and ongoing professional development plans for all staff. They are reflective and complete regular practice observations to identify areas of key strengths and any areas to improve. This contributes to the ongoing development of the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop practice further to ensure that staff respond to children's emerging needs and that their individual targets are consistently implemented in practice
• provide further opportunities to develop children's understanding of the world beyond their own experiences.