Jubilee Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the setting and happily settle to an activity of their choosing. Those who need a little reassurance receive this from staff, who support children with a variety of strategies they devise that are unique to each child's needs. Good relationships and bonds are clearly evident between children and staff. Children readily seek cuddles and guidance from staff, which they give willingly. Children welcome staff into their play and staff offer clear challenge to extend their learning. For example, staff support older children who show an interest in numbers and counting, to understand and recognise numbers and what they represent. Staff fully support children's independence and children receive plenty of praise and encouragement to persevere and succeed.

Children learn to communicate in differing ways and, for example, receive weekly tutoring to understand simple signing. Children, even the younger ones, confidently demonstrate the signs that they have learned, including animals and colours. Staff allow children the time they need during conversations. This enables children to gather their thoughts and respond and encourages high levels of communication. This helps children to achieve good levels of language development. Children show clear concern and empathy for others. For instance, when a child has an accidental injury, alongside staff, they make sure that their friend is going to be okay. Children develop good physical development and demonstrate their balancing skills. For example, children jump from one stepping stone to the other, sometimes being able to jump with both feet together.

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

• Leaders and staff plan and offer a stimulating learning environment and curriculum that provides children with challenge to learn, practise and embed new skills. The curriculum stems from what staff know about children's levels of development and what they need to learn next. Staff use their knowledge of children's home lives and family backgrounds, while incorporating children's interests, to provide challenging and stimulating experiences. Children make good progress in their learning.
• Parents express their delight with the levels of care and education their children receive at the pre-school. Staff effectively develop and maintain relationships with parents. They share feedback daily and also through regular meetings with the child's key person. Parents describe their children's experiences at the pre-school as 'amazing' and how staff go 'above and beyond'.
• Children actively engage in daily activities, such as tidying up their environment. However, staff do not always fully support children's understanding of the passage of time and sometimes use concepts that are too advanced for children's age or stage of development. This does not fully enhance children's management of their routines of the day.
• There are highly effective processes in place for children to learn about the diverse world in which they live. Staff embrace the cultures and experiences from children's heritage and cultures. This supports children to understand about similarities and differences.
• Leaders have a clear oversight of the provision and effectively target aspects for improvement. They have successful strategies in place to support their staffing team's professionalism and well-being. This enables staff to work together as a team, where they feel valued and supported.
• Sometimes, staff are not fully aware of when issues between older children are beginning to escalate to help support them and reduce this. Their explanations to support children manage the situations are not always fully effective in helping them to understand the issue. This does not fully support older children to learn to resolve minor conflicts.
• There are effective systems in place to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those learning more than one language. Staff work tirelessly with parents and seek and embrace support from outside agencies and professionals. They make effective use of additional funding to meet children's learning and development needs.
• Staff make good use of visual resources to seek children's views. For example, they point to pictures on the boards to highlight to children when the outdoor area is ready for use and for children to share what they would like for snack. This is very successful for children with SEND or those who speak English as an additional language.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen children's awareness of the passage of time to help them manage the routines of the day
• continue to support older children's understanding of how to resolve minor conflicts.