Little Pioneers Nursery & Pre-School

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff work in effective partnership with parents to support all children, and particularly those who face barriers to their learning. Many children speak English as an additional language, and staff are able to support all areas of children's development through their own bilingual ability. This helps staff to build strong relationships with families and support communication with parents to help continue their children's learning at home. Staff provide guidance and practical resources for use at home. This includes developing the use of English through songs, stories, rhymes and repetition while valuing home languages. Furthermore, staff work collaboratively with parents to ensure that additional funding is used purposefully. This helps them to meet children's individual needs. For example, leaders have considered ways to enhance the outdoor environment to further support children's physical development. Children benefit from planned experiences, including visits from external providers, such as animal workshops. This helps to promote children's personal, social and emotional development.

Leaders have established support plans for children, and staff use visual cues and timetables to support children's spoken language. While staff complete observations and assessments of children's learning, including the statutory 2-year-old progress check, leaders do not monitor this information closely enough. Consequently, changes to provision are not sharply focused or reviewed rigorously to ensure they lead to sustained improvements in children's experiences and progress.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Typically, children benefit from learning that is shaped around their individual interests, which helps them to remain suitably motivated. Children who face barriers to their learning have individual action plans in place. Staff have props and resources such as visual timetables and cues that they can use to help children to communicate. As a result, children are generally well supported to access the curriculum and make progress in their learning. However, staff do not consistently provide high-quality interactions for children to excel in all areas of their learning. For instance, staff do not consistently adapt their teaching to build on and extend children's thinking skills. Leaders have not implemented targeted monitoring of the quality of staff interactions to recognise and swiftly address the weaknesses in teaching.

Children enjoy creative experiences, including music sessions where they explore a range of instruments. This helps to develop their creativity, confidence and self-expression. Older children build on their early mathematical understanding as they engage in activities such as creating maps and clues, which they post around the pre-school room. They begin to use positional language as they describe where objects are hidden around the environment. Overall, children benefit from a suitably varied and engaging curriculum that supports their development across different areas of learning and helps to prepare them for their next stage in learning.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children show that they take pride in their achievements. For instance, older children happily take on responsibilities, such as being 'lunchtime leaders'. They carry out their roles with confidence. In addition, young children's individual 'celebrations' are displayed on a 'proud cloud', and staff talk to them about the positive things that they have done. This helps to develop children's self-esteem.

Children show a 'can-do' attitude as they explore obstacle courses and make good use of outdoor resources, supporting their physical development. Overall, children make typical progress from what they know and can already do when they start the setting. They develop suitable key skills needed for their next stage in learning. All children, including disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care, generally achieve well. They benefit from adaptations in practice, such as the use of visual cues and prompts. Children enjoy listening to stories and join in with songs and rhymes. This helps to promote children's communication and language development.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Children show that they enjoy their time at the setting through their interactions with their friends. They show kindness and affection as they play together. Children hold hands, hug each other and laugh together during shared activities. They manage minor conflicts appropriately and are supported to recognise and talk about their feelings. Children explore similarities and differences between themselves and others, which promotes respect and understanding.

Children form close, trusting bonds with their key person. This supports children's confidence, independence and resilience, demonstrated through their willingness to persevere with self-chosen tasks. Children demonstrate active listening skills and follow instructions well. Younger children's achievements are celebrated through approaches such as a 'proud cloud', recognising milestones like sitting at the table with peers. This supports children's self-esteem and sense of belonging. Leaders and staff work effectively with parents to promote expectations for behaviour and support good attendance.

Children behave well and demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. However, leaders do not ensure that aspects of the daily routine are well planned. On occasion, children are left waiting too long between key transition times of the day. This is when engagement in learning begins to dip.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff are good role models and encourage children to develop appropriate self-care skills, such as how to follow good hygiene routines. They talk to children about the importance of following a healthy lifestyle, for instance, through activities such as growing and preparing food. Staff support children to make foods such as beetroot and chocolate cake and talk about different healthy choices. Children begin to recognise the importance of rest after physical activity, such as learning to breathe deeply and slow down their heart rates after circle and dancing games.

Older children join in with group activities, including chanting daily affirmations that help to promote children's emotional wellbeing. Children join in with talking about how they work together as a team. They are confident and show that they are secure in the care of their key person. Children, including young babies, invite others into their play and share resources. This demonstrates children's effective social development.

Children develop increasing independence and learn to do things for themselves. For instance, they gather their own outdoor clothing ready for outdoor play, such as their own shoes and sun hats.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

There have been recent changes within the leadership team. Despite this, leaders demonstrate a secure understanding of the setting's strengths and areas for development. They show ambition for improvement and are beginning to take steps to strengthen practice across the provision. Leaders understand their responsibility to notify Ofsted of significant changes. They have recently reviewed risk assessment procedures to ensure headcount procedures are followed when children leave and return to the building following outdoor play.

Leaders place an emphasis on working in partnership with parents. They are particularly effective in supporting families who are new to the area. They help them to access the setting and build relationships with others in the community. Leaders work closely with local agencies and signpost families to relevant services and support. They also engage parents through an online platform, sharing ideas and activities to support learning at home. For example, parents can access a lending library and practical resources to extend children's experiences beyond the setting. They value opportunities to share familiar stories at home, with children confidently joining in with sounds and words. Parents speak positively about the provision, noting the progress their children make and the strong relationships they develop.

Staff wellbeing is supported through regular supervision sessions, which help to ensure that workloads are manageable and that staff feel supported in their roles. However, leaders do not consistently monitor the quality of teaching through regular observation of staff practice. As a result, opportunities to identify and address areas for improvement in teaching are not always fully realised. In addition, they do not rigorously monitor children's assessments to swiftly identify emerging gaps and help to build sustained improvements in children's experiences and progress.