Holt Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this engaging and motivational environment. They excitedly arrive and are greeted by extremely caring and dedicated staff. Relationships between staff, children and parents are exceptionally strong. These secure relationships help children feel safe and secure as they play and learn. Older children show high levels of independence in their learning and self-care. They self-register and put their coats and lunchboxes away without needing support from staff. Children's behaviour is impeccable. They freely use 'please' and 'thank you' to staff and to each other. Older children show they care for younger children. They hold younger children's hands and guide them to find what they are looking for, such as their water bottles.

Children show they are extremely confident and curious learners. They enthusiastically select their own activities and resources, create their own games, and challenge themselves inside and outdoors. They proudly tell staff when they achieve success in completing different tasks. Children show remarkably high levels of engagement in their learning and demonstrate resilience and perseverance. For instance, they spend long periods of time exploring different ways of making objects slide down guttering as fast as possible. Staff encourage them to experiment and work things out for themselves. Children persevere with changing the angles of the guttering and pouring water down the guttering to see if these changes make a difference to the speed. This helps children develop excellent problem solving and thinking skills.

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

• Leaders and managers have designed a highly ambitious and broad curriculum to give children an extremely strong foundation in the knowledge and skills they need for future learning. Experienced and dedicated staff make the most of every opportunity to deliver high quality teaching to embed their motivating and challenging curriculum.
• Staff consistently provide children with opportunities to recall previous learning of specific concepts or vocabulary. For instance, children freely go to the 'learning wall' to look at and talk about the photos, paintings, and pieces of work displayed from a previous topic. They confidently talk to each other about the differences between 'frog spawn' and 'toad spawn' as they look at photos from a visit to a local pond. They point to writing and ask staff 'what does that say?' Staff take time to point to each word as they read the sentence. This successfully supports children's early literacy skills.
• Staff expertly introduce new language and ask questions to deepen children's understanding. For example, children learn about the different types of sea creatures as they play a bingo game. Staff extend children's knowledge by ensuring they teach children the correct names of the sea animals. Children listen intently and accurately repeat names such as 'orca' as they find pictures of a killer whale later in the game. Children rapidly become confident communicators.
• The passionate and reflective leaders and managers ensure there are always opportunities for staff to further enhance the outstanding education and care they provide. Professional development opportunities are thoughtfully chosen to have the greatest impact on children's learning. For instance, staff recently received training to promote children's mathematical skills. This has increased children's interest in numbers and has enhanced children's use of mathematical language in their play. For instance, children laugh and joke as they talk about going on a number hunt to look for some missing clock tiles. They draw posters to show their peers which numbers are lost. They correctly say and write numbers to 10.
• Parents speak extremely highly of the setting. They comment on how staff are nurturing, caring, supportive and approachable. Parents appreciate the strong communication they receive about their children's progress and learning. The setting actively fosters parental involvement through stay-and-play meetings, parents' evenings, sharing their weekly planning, and through other engagement opportunities. For example, staff share new knowledge they gain from training courses with parents at family workshops. These strong partnerships support children's consistency of learning.
• Children are highly valued and respected. Staff provide exceptional opportunities for children to make decisions and choices about all aspects of their care and learning. Staff consistently listen to children's ideas and respond with genuine interest, positivity, and enthusiasm. For example, staff seek children's views on how they want to develop their new outside area. They involve children in risk assessing the environment. These opportunities help children develop a strong sense of self and builds their self-esteem.