Isabello's Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and confident. They readily share resources and negotiate activities with each other. Children explore the setting's outdoor area, where they develop their physical skills and learn. Children delight as they roll balls through tubes.

Children's communication and language skills are promoted well. They sit together during 'welcome time', where they enjoy talking about their day and how they are feeling. Children demonstrate feeling safe, secure, and confident to approach the inspector. For example, they remind the inspector to drink water at snack time and the need to wrap up warm when outside. Children show a love of songs and dancing. They join in eagerly with enthusiastic staff, singing together in both Spanish and English. They giggle while catching bubbles during action songs.

Children behave very well. They know the daily routines and understand staff's expectations for their behaviour. Children are supported to learn how to manage their own feelings. They are given consistent explanations for acceptable behaviour and boundaries, helping them to build on important social skills. Staff are good role models for the children and help them to learn to respect and value their friends. Children, including those who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress from their starting points.

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

• Children effectively manage their personal care needs. They enjoy eating their own healthy snack and lunch in small groups with staff, freely talking about their food.
• Mindfulness and weekly yoga sessions provide an opportunity for children to relax and learn more about their bodies. Children and staff talk about how their bodies feel after these sessions. This helps to promote children's well-being.
• Staff support children's personal, social and emotional behaviour well. Staff recognise that some children have had little contact with others during the COVID-19 pandemic and may take longer to settle. Staff support children's emotional well-being effectively. They observe children who are settling and encourage them to participate in activities.
• Staff encourage children to be independent. For example, children willingly help to tidy up and put on their coats with minimal help. They join in familiar routines, such as washing their hands, which teach them how to stay healthy and safe.
• Staff skilfully support children to follow their interests and develop their own play. For example, in the garden, children thoroughly enjoyed acting out going on a bus journey. Children are encouraged to use extra chairs, logs, and empty cables to extend the bus and make steering wheels. Children excitedly talk about their journey and what they might see along the way to the 'beach'. For example, children talk about sand and eating ice creams. Other children happily talk to staff about animals that might be seen in a zoo, giggling as they make the sounds and actions of a parrot, crocodile, and tiger.
• Staff plan and provide a broad range of activities to support children's learning across all areas of the curriculum. They provide children with stimulating activities and opportunities both inside and outside, and offer children weekly specialist forest-school and yoga sessions. However, some group activities are too long. This results in some children becoming restless and struggling to be fully engaged.
• Parents speak very highly of the pre-school and staff. For example, they comment that staff follow children's interests well and are always available to talk to. Parents explain that they receive excellent information and are well informed about wider information via an online system. They comment that their children are extremely happy and thoroughly enjoy attending.
• The special educational needs coordinator is knowledgeable and works well with parents, staff and other agencies. They agree and work on specific areas of learning to ensure a consistent approach is implemented by all.
• The management team is experienced and effective, and this is reflected in the strong staff team it supports and values. They routinely evaluate the setting and are open to suggestions on ways to improve. The management team works hard to ensure they recruit qualified and enthusiastic staff.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and improve the organisation of group-time activities to ensure that staff recognise purposeful learning opportunities for all children to fully engage in their learning.