Knutsford Community Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in the extremely well-resourced and inviting environment that thoroughly engages their interests. They eagerly settle to enticing activities and enjoy shaping these to meet their own interests, for example turning dough into mashed potato to use in the role-play kitchen, and develop a painting activity into preparing their own wrapping paper.

Children at the pre-school have a big voice. All children feel able to say what they want to happen and when. This means that all children have many learning opportunities that respond specifically to their needs and help them make their best possible progress. They know that they can use their voices to ask for things they want, to share their own thoughts and ideas and that the adults who care for them will listen to them.

Children show that they feel very safe at pre-school. They follow the excellent example of staff who treat all children with great respect. This builds strong emotional security and children are very responsive to the needs of others. All children delight in daily exercise routines. They jump, turn and stretch and know how to feel their hearts to show the effects of exercise on their bodies. They learn to keep themselves safe and healthy.

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

• The needs of all children, including those who are at risk of disadvantage, are exactingly met. The curriculum is exciting, child focused and supports all children. Teaching is of an extremely high quality. Staff understand and focus on children's individual learning needs and their emotional needs are considered throughout all activities and engagements. Children develop swiftly and show an extremely positive attitude towards learning.
• The outdoor and indoor environments are thoughtfully designed to meet children's needs. Children can access nearly all resources safely and independently to follow their own choices in their play. Staff are always on hand to guide them, making thoughtful and helpful suggestions. They also know when to stand back and enable children to develop an idea themselves. This helps all children to follow their own ideas through to their conclusion, and learn to solve problems independently. Children know that their interests and opinions are fully considered in all activities and experiences. They show their highly developed problem-solving skills as they work out how to take a train on a journey. They follow available map cards to find out where the train is going to.
• Children develop superb communication and language skills. Staff weave opportunities for using and hearing new language throughout all activities. When reading, they take care to stretch children's knowledge as they help them sound out and explore new words. Children develop new vocabulary rapidly, such as knowing that another word for suitcase is luggage, and another word for oven is stove. Staff prompt children to use conversational language throughout activities. They share their news with the group each day and use working toy phones to have lively conversations with their friends who are in other parts of the pre-school. This particularly supports children who may be less confident to speak face to face.
• Relationships with parents are excellent. Children, including those with specific needs, all benefit from the close communication between staff and their homes. This means that staff are fully aware of children's specific learning and care needs and take extremely effective steps to support these. Parents praise the great care that staff show their children and understand all the steps that the pre-school team take to keep their children safe and well. They particularly appreciate the regular contact, activity ideas, emotional and practical support that the staff team have offered any child not at pre-school during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• All children make rapid progress considering their starting points. Children who may have special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from staff's close attention and sharp focus on supporting them to achieve their full potential. Staff handle sensitive situations with great skill. This helps them to successfully improve all children's speech and language skills, and to engage parents carefully when children may need expert help.
• Staff are extremely knowledgeable and receive ample training and support to fulfil their roles to a very high quality. Their dedication to the children they care for is shown in their ability to engage their interests and listen to their ideas. Staff are all thoroughly aware of the learning intentions and priorities for each child so are able to instinctively adapt activities to meet the needs of every child. For example, they encourage children to build towers on a light box, helping those who need more confidence to try the next part of the tower, and to try again when the tower falls down.