Holland Park Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are settled, happy and have good relationships with each other and staff. Children are well behaved and follow the daily routines well. Children understand the expectations of their behaviour that help keep them safe. For example, they keenly line up and walk sensibly to the bathroom to wash their hands and get ready for lunch. They have good manners, share and take turns during play, with support and praise from staff. There is a calm and positive environment in which children's personal development is supported well.

Children are confident at expressing their thoughts and use good vocabulary. Staff support this by planning activities in the environment that engage the children. For example, when combining ingredients to make play dough, the children were keen to discuss how the flour and salt felt, comparing them to each other. This supports children to develop good communication skills.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to ensure children get the required levels of support they need. Staff ensure interventions happen quickly to help children make the best possible progress.

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

• Leaders and staff work cooperatively as a team. Leaders are ambitious for all children. They work together with staff to ensure children's individual needs are met. For example, they hold weekly team meetings to discuss how children have progressed in their learning and how to support this further.
• Children's communication and language development are considered by all staff. Staff ensure activities support and build upon vocabulary for the children through stories, rhymes and modelling new language. For example, while sharing space stories, they discuss various planets and use words to describe and compare them. A child commented, 'Mars is the hottest. We can't go near it. We have to explore the ground.' This supports children to make good progress in their language development.
• Staff continually teach children important social skills, such as sharing and turn taking. For example, when making play dough, the children are encouraged to take it in turns to add various ingredients using different scoops. This helps children to interact well with their peers and form positive relationships.
• Staff support children well to understand their own emotions. Children learn to respect each other and listen to what others have to say. For example, they have circle time activities to name emotions with the support of images, and staff encourage the children to talk about the reasons they may feel like this.
• Staff are nurturing and have a good understanding of what their key children know and need to learn next. This information is used to plan well-thought-out activities that capture the children's interests and help them achieve the next steps in their learning.
• Leaders provide supportive professional development opportunities to staff to ensure best practice is consistent throughout the setting. They regularly monitor the practice of staff and identify any targeted training needed for staff. This enables and supports staff to implement good practice.
• Staff consider the curriculum for physical development. For example, the children cut out and stick paper from magazines, strengthening their hand muscles. Children participate in weekly sports classes, developing their balance and hand-to-eye coordination. However, children do not always get enough opportunities in their daily play to develop skills such as running, climbing and balancing. On these occasions, children do not make consistent development in their physical skills.
• Parents value the kind and nurturing staff. However, staff do not always ensure that they keep parents informed of their child's progress and next steps consistently. This impacts on the support parents can provide at home to help their child develop in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure parents have robust and regular information about their child's progress
• ensure that the children are as physically active in their play as they can be throughout the year.