Iqra Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children delight in being in this welcoming, safe and exceptionally well-resourced environment. They are greeted by enthusiastic and caring staff as they arrive at the setting. The strong key person system helps children to feel settled and secure. Children are supported well to manage their own feelings. Staff give clear instructions and children know what is expected from them. Staff consistently praise children for their efforts, achievements and positive behaviours. As a result, children's behaviour is excellent.

Children make good progress because staff have high expectations of what they can achieve. This includes children who receive additional funding, those who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Younger children enjoy exploring the outdoor water activities, and carefully washing the dolls. Older children develop essential skills in readiness for school. Staff effortlessly instil a love of books into the children, for example by having a cosy reading area outside. Children squeal with delight during group story time, demonstrating high levels of focus and concentration. Throughout the year, children develop an understanding of a range of cultural festivals that reflect their own backgrounds and those of their friends. This helps them to learn to be respectful of differences.

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

• Children have continuous opportunities to spend time outdoors being physically active. They make good progress in their physical development as they access the well-resourced outdoor area. Children show a keen interest in the natural world around them. For example, when they notice a fly on the slide, they enthusiastically get magnifying glasses to further explore and investigate.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff take time to get to know children and their parents and build strong and trusting relationships. Staff consider children's interests and prior learning when planning activities. Parents comment on what skills their children have learned since starting at the setting, such as learning a variety of new words and managing their behaviour.
• Children's language and communication are of paramount importance. Staff provide a language-rich environment where they talk to children, sing songs and read books. The manager is passionate about supporting children who may need additional assistance in this area. She arranges regular training for staff on how best to teach children to learn new words and express themselves.
• Staff know the children's interests well and enthusiastically offer ideas and suggestions during focus-led and child-initiated activities. Overall, staff use effective questioning when communicating with children to extend conversations and build on children's learning. However, on occasions, they do not always make the most of spontaneous opportunities to extend children's learning further and enable the children to develop their own thinking skills.
• The dedicated and passionate manager shows a good commitment to the professional development of her team. This plays an integral part in the development of the nursery and how staff promote children's progression. The manager places a high priority on the well-being of staff. As a result, staff feel valued and enjoy working at the nursery.
• The manager and her team continuously reflect on their practice. They use highly effective observations to make sure that all areas of the nursery are being used effectively and will quickly make changes where necessary. For example, the home corner and creative area have recently been expanded, to create more opportunities for language and communication to take place.
• Overall, the manager and staff plan a well-thought-out and stimulating curriculum. They regularly come together to plan what the children need to learn next and how best to implement this. However, staff are not always as clear as they could be about the key skills they want the children to learn during the different activities.
• Staff pay very close attention to promoting children's good hygiene. For example, they encourage children to wash their hands regularly. Children have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe and how to take appropriate risks.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's knowledge of curriculum intent so they are clear what skills and knowledge children are meant to gain from all experiences
• strengthen staff's understanding of how to extend children's learning during focused and child-initiated play.