Hounds Owls Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff have very high expectations for all children to be challenged in their learning and development and to make the best possible progress. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive exceptional support that ensures they are fully included in all activities and experiences. Children are extremely active, enthusiastic learners. They develop excellent social skills and form close friendships. Staff successfully support children's confidence to talk and share their ideas with other children and staff during their play.

Children have excellent opportunities to learn about the world. For example, in response to children's interest in looking at the sky, staff initiated activities for them to make and use cloud-watching visors. Children learned about the shapes and names of the clouds and the meaning of new words, which successfully extended their vocabulary.

Staff focus very strongly on planning activities in the community to support children's excellent understanding of their local environment. They take children on regular outings to woodland areas, a library, a café and the post office, often using public transport. Last year, at the request of the local council, staff took children to plant bulbs and a tree in the local cemetery.

Children thoroughly enjoy taking part in music-and-movement activities. They listen attentively, and eagerly play musical instruments in time to music. They talk with their friends, share hand puppets and follow instructions that enable them to join in songs and action rhymes.

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

• Managers and staff continually strive to improve outcomes for children. They implement numerous initiatives that are worthy of sharing with other early years settings. For instance, the support they provide to families of children with SEND goes above what is expected.
• Managers work as part of the staff team. They actively coach and support staff to continually improve their practice. Recently, all staff completed training on 'attachment', which has enabled them to help less-confident children form positive relationships with others. Other training has successfully helped staff to develop their communication with fathers, so they feel more involved and share information about their children.
• Managers focus strongly on supporting staff to work effectively in partnership with parents to involve them in the pre-school. Recently, staff asked children and their families to look for flowering spring bulbs during walks in the local area. Parents posted photographs of what they discovered, which staff discussed with children to support continuity of learning.
• Staff interaction and communication with children is exemplary. They consistently welcome and respond to children's emerging ideas during activities. For instance, children play imaginatively and involve staff in 'going camping'. Staff join in their play with enthusiasm and engage in conversations that successfully extend children's language development. Additionally, staff provide language sessions with small groups of children, which they use exceptionally well to reduce gaps in this area of their development. Children develop excellent listening skills and the confidence to talk in front of others before leaving to go to school.
• Staff provide a range of rich experiences that help children develop the skills they need for the future. They make a wealth of books easily accessible to support their pre-reading skills. Staff identify a 'book of the week', and provide parents with a link to the book online, so they can read it to their children at home and support this learning further. These include books about internet safety, thanksgiving, the jubilee and classic fairy tales.
• Staff are exceptional role models who inspire children to behave extremely well. They read books to children about having 'kind hands' and not hurting their friends, and lend the book to parents to help them support children's behaviour at home. Sometimes, staff take a small group of children onto the adjacent field to run around and 'let off steam', which helps them to refocus their attention and cooperate.
• Staff support children's independence extremely well. They encourage children to help prepare fresh fruit and use tongs to serve themselves at snack time. Staff also encourage children to recognise and find their name on a picture card, which children use to register they have arrived at the pre-school.