Hollywood Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children in this pre-school are happy, supported, and encouraged to flourish. Staff are exceptionally skilled at developing children's passion for communication and language. All children excitedly join in their daily rhyme time session with a song that they chose to sing at graduation. Exposure to a rich and varied amount of vocabulary is built up with trips to the local library, a visit from an author, and high-quality interactions with staff.

The manager has designed a bespoke, ambitious and flexible curriculum that takes into account the children's current interests, abilities and developmental stages, which she shares with all staff. Staff provide high-quality teaching in a stimulating and well-thought-out environment. Children show exemplary behaviour at all times, with high levels of respect for staff and their friends. For instance, they help other children to tie up their hair and then sit together in the reading nook and read a story together. Children become engrossed in their learning for substantial periods of time and have high levels of concentration. As a result, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make outstanding progress from their starting points.

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

• The manager has established an open and highly reflective environment, where all staff regularly discuss how to improve their practice. Staff and management meticulously create timely assessments that accurately pinpoint children's next steps. They use this information to plan specific activities that enhance the experiences of all children.
• The extremely experienced special educational needs coordinator works closely with other professionals to provide customised support for children with SEND. She draws on training to enable her to quickly recognises when children might need additional help, and adapts her practice accordingly. As a result, all children, including those with SEND and children who speak English as an additional language, show remarkable progress.
• Children receive an awe-inspiring array of opportunities from visiting the local area. Staff weave learning into these experiences. For example, children enjoy an outing to the fire station, a trip to the local wildlife area, a visit to the local café to purchase their own toast, or a bus ride to the local pet shop. These early experiences enrich children's lives and provide opportunities for further learning to take place.
• Children have access to an extremely well-designed outside area that allows them to thrive in their physical development. Staff create a football game and children run freely. They learn the skills to work as a team, while also raising their heart rate. Tools are provided and children independently cut up and peel vegetables, which they pretend to cook in a soup. Staff confidently know when to support children with their learning and when to step back, allowing children to focus on the skills they need for their next stage of development.
• Children are immensely independent. At the start of the day, they find their name, self-register, hang up their belongings and join in with an engaging rhyme time activity. Staff encourage children to hold their food tray, eat with a knife and fork, scrape their plates after eating, wipe down the table and practise toilet and handwashing routines for themselves.
• Children are confident and resilient. For example, they take photos with a thermal camera and ask staff to tear off the photo for them. Staff calmly explain to children how to take the photo off for themselves. This empowers children and boosts their self-esteem.
• Parents remark that the staff go above and beyond for their child. They state that their child's progression in all areas is extraordinary. Staff pride themselves on their relationships with parents. These exceptionally strong links enable parents to feel supported and help to extend their child's learning at home, which contributes to their rapid progress.
• Children access a rich range of exciting and innovative activities that support all areas of the curriculum. Children delight as they pour water from one container to another. They use 'sand hands' to consolidate numbers from one to five, and staff model simple addition. Children thoroughly enjoy using their small hand muscles to pinch, squeeze, roll and manipulate dough into a ball, which supports their early writing.
• Children develop an excellent understanding of the world around them and different faiths. For example, they take great delight in explaining that their parents come in to read a book to their friends in Urdu. They celebrate festivals such as Eid, Easter and the Jewish Passover, allowing children to experience a wide range of cultures and try a variety of different foods from around the world.