Hope Pre-School Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are highly skilled and effective in supporting children's personal and emotional development. This means that children are confident, capable and extremely settled in this welcoming setting. The nurture and support provided by staff to all children enables them to thrive and fully develop their independence skills, as they feel safe and secure. Staff deploy highly effective strategies to help children to manage their own emotions and behaviour. For example, staff are very responsive to children's individual needs and actively engage in all aspects of children's play and learning. This means staff are close at hand to provide gentle support and positive role modelling when required. Children learn from an early age how to negotiate and compromise with their friends.

Staff have extremely high expectations for children's learning and development. Each key person has a deep understanding of a child's interests, individual needs and stages of development. This means that staff plan rich learning opportunities that excite and motivate children, ensuring all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make progress and reach their full potential. Staff ensure that all children have learning experiences that engage their interest, motivate them and help them to succeed. Staff are exceptionally skilled in supporting and extending children's language and communication skills. This helps all children to make rapid progress.

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

• The manager is extremely passionate about her work, and she provides strong leadership for the team. Since the last inspection, she has successfully focused on improving staff understanding of safeguarding policy, practice and procedure. The manager fosters a strong ethos, where all staff work together and are fully committed to providing high-quality learning experiences. Professional support and development are given high priority. This means that staff have the skills and knowledge they need to support all children to make exceptional progress and achieve the best outcomes.
• Staff demonstrate exceptional skill when engaging with children during play and activities. They fully use every opportunity to build on and extend children's learning and skills. For example, when sitting alongside children during a creative activity, staff use ambitious language, such as 'symmetry' and 'diagonal', to broaden children's vocabulary in meaningful contexts. Children demonstrate a clear understanding, saying, for example, 'That side is the same as this one,' when describing their symmetrical picture.
• Staff promote children's health and safety well. Children learn about the importance of good hygiene routines, such as handwashing and wiping their noses. Staff supervision, indoors and outdoors, is effective, and children confidently and safely use hammers and screwdrivers. They learn how to fix materials together when, for example, exploring wood. Staff carry out daily safety checks. Risk assessments are in place and used by staff. However, when completing a risk assessment, staff occasionally overlook potential hazards, such as staff using open cups with warm drinks. When alerted to this, the manager and designated safeguarding lead (DSL) for the pre-school acted promptly to address this aspect of their risk assessment and practice, demonstrating a positive attitude to promoting children's safety.
• Staff provide exceptional support to enable all children to become confident communicators. Any concerns regarding children's language development are swiftly identified, and clear support plans are put into place. Staff work very closely with parents and other professionals to ensure children, especially those with SEND, receive the support they need to move forward in their learning and development.
• Staff recognise the value in providing children with a rich variety of stimulating outdoor learning experiences. Children learn to develop a deep appreciation of the natural world. Children enthusiastically describe what they have seen and learned on their regular walks around the village and explorations in the woods, recalling the names of plants and insects during their conversations. Staff extend this interest further, using books to promote discussion and children's understanding of the world around them.
• Parents and carers are extremely supportive of the pre-school and comment that staff go above and beyond for the children. Parents value the dedication of the team in helping children to achieve the best outcomes. They feel confident that children get off to a 'flying start' when they begin school, as staff prepare children well and develop the skills they will need to succeed.
• Staff provide a wide range of experiences for children to learn about and feel part of the local community. Children enjoy opportunities to take part in community activities, such as making scarecrows for the village festivities and helping to keep the village tidy.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review risk assessments to confirm that all potential hazards in the setting have been identified.