Hurstpierpoint Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children settle well under the care of the warm and friendly staff team. Occasionally, younger children have the opportunity to be in a smaller group while older children are away from the setting enjoying their outdoor activities. This enables newer and younger children to build strong relationships with staff. Children enjoy selecting from the 'pick and play' resources, where they can independently choose what they would like to take to play with. They use the pictures on the boxes to help them identify the contents and then take a number jigsaw, which they complete eagerly.

Older children delight in their outdoor play and learning experiences. They work together to find items on their autumnal scavenger hunt. Children talk about their home lives with staff and the pets they have at home. This helps them to understand about differences in families. Children thoroughly enjoy role play and excitedly make dinner for others. They use mathematical language and staff build on children's existing knowledge to enable them to understand how to recognise what numbers represent. Children develop skills for early writing and pencil control. They practise and embed how to use pegs and large tweezers to pick up a variety of different textural objects.

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

• The manager has taken stock after the last inspection and has made effective use of action planning to make improvements. She has worked in partnership with her staff and has received support from the committee members. This has enabled them to evaluate practice and develop their knowledge of childcare.
• The manager and staff team have worked hard to improve their planning for what children need to learn next and how they can achieve this. There are clear systems in place to gather information about children's individual needs and learning needs. Staff use this along with what they learn about children through their observations to assess what children need to learn next.
• Overall, staff know children well and assess their current levels of development successfully. Staff plan as a team to enable children to move along in their learning. However, staff are not always fully aware of all children's next steps, to enable them to make the most of each interaction with children.
• Staff embrace children's interests and curiosity. For example, they take a conversation about planets and stars to talk about the sizes of planets, including the sun and the moon. Staff introduce new words, such 'solar system' and 'rockets', to enhance this interest and provide a language-rich environment.
• There is clear support in place for children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities and those learning English as an additional language. The planning for children's development across the areas of learning is ambitious for all children. The manager uses additional funding effectively according to children's individual needs and interests.
• Parents speak highly of the rapid improvements they have seen recently. They comment about the clearer approach to teaching and learning and the impact of this. One parent stated that their child is now showing a strong understanding of letters and their sounds. However, some parents are not aware of who their child's key person is. This does not always enable even greater communication and partnerships to enhance the sharing of learning information.
• Children enjoy taking an active part in story times. They take turns to open the flaps on the pages of the over-sided book to discover what is behind. Children express how their animals in the book may be, including words such as 'angry'. Staff teach children about letters and their sounds from an early age.
• The manager evaluates staff's practice and guides them to improve their knowledge. She reviews their training needs and enables staff to enhance their learning, such as through accessing professional qualifications courses. The manager is an effective mentor who role models good practice successfully.
• Staff calmly support children to understand how to manage their behaviour. They use group times to talk about 'sharing is caring' and using 'walking feet'. Staff make sure that children do not miss out on their turn if a child is trying to dominate the situation. Children receive gentle reminders about their awareness of others, such as when manoeuvring on the ride-on toys in the garden.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to enhance staff's awareness of what each child needs to learn next to enable each interaction to be more highly effective
• build further on relationships with parents to update details of key persons and their child's learning.