Mendell Preschool & Out of School Club

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff identify children's needs early. They gather information from parents and carers and complete baseline assessments. They are familiar with the setting's approach to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing other barriers to learning. Staff plan activities that follow children's interests and needs. They organise play-based activities and review children's next steps, which are recorded and monitored appropriately. Effective partnerships are in place with parents and other professionals, whereby information is regularly shared. This ensures that parents remain actively involved in their child's learning and development, and early help is identified and referrals are made swiftly.

Leaders use additional funding to widen children's experiences and participation to help improve their outcomes. For instance, they purchased climbing equipment to support children's sensory needs. This helps them to engage and learn alongside their peers and develop lifelong skills for their future learning.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Overall, leaders and staff deliver a varied and inclusive curriculum. Planning is typically informed through children's interests and what they need to learn next. For example, children are learning about how firefighters and fire engines keep them safe. During an adult-led activity, they are provided with resources to draw a fire engine. However, some staff do not take the opportunity to talk to children to recall their prior learning. This means that some children are not clear about the expectations of the planned activity. Leaders and staff understand how to use assessment to shape the curriculum so that staff teach children their appropriate next steps in learning. Interactions between staff and children place a clear focus on early communication and language skills, as well as supporting children to develop their physical strength.

Staff use a range of strategies to support the language and communication of those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing other barriers to learning. For example, they use visual signing, model single words, and song and rhymes sessions to help build their attention and listening skills. Children use tools in the sand to dig and are supported to push and pull themselves up and down the climbing equipment.

Children are making progress in their learning. Leaders have identified that the teaching of mathematics is a focus for improvement in their curriculum. Staff support children's mathematical awareness generally well. For example, staff confidently teach children about important mathematics, such as counting, colours and shapes. However, some staff are less successful in teaching about wider aspects of mathematics, such as weight, volume and measure. As a result, children's experiences in these aspects of mathematics are less well planned.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children are typically achieving well from their starting points. They are becoming confident communicators as they engage in discussions with adults and peers. For example, children talk about how firefighters use their ladders to rescue people and how the water helps to put out the fire. This helps them to further extend their vocabulary and understanding of people in the community. Children show increasing independence as they manage routines and make choices about their play. For example, at lunchtime, children manage and organise their own packed lunches, tackling tricky packaging. They tidy away after themselves and know that they need to wash their hands before and after lunch.

Children who face barriers to their learning, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are quickly identified and provided with focused support and interventions. This ensures these children make the progress of which they are capable. All children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders consistently model expected behaviours. This creates a calm but busy learning environment where children behave well. Children are kind and caring towards one another and play collaboratively. For example, children work hard together to build complex road structures for their cars to move along. Additionally, they are respectful of their learning environment, helping to put away their toys when the tidy-up song is played by staff.

Effective key-person systems are in place. Children have positive and secure relationships with those that care for them. Staff know about children's home lives and are aware of changes ahead of them. They use this information to plan an individualised curriculum for children to help support their emotional wellbeing. Parents and carers are extremely complimentary of the relationships they have with the staff, which has helped their children to flourish both in the setting and at home. Leaders have robust processes in place to follow up on children's absences. This helps to set good habits for future learning.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Leaders and staff create a safe, welcoming setting. This helps children to feel emotionally secure as they arrive and enter the setting with ease. Leaders implement arrival and collection routines that mirror the host school. This helps children and parents in their transition to school. Children learn about keeping healthy. Safer eating routines are adhered to and good hygiene routines are in place. Lunchtime is a real social occasion where staff engage children in conversations about the healthy foods in their packed lunch. Children benefit from plenty of opportunities to be outside in the fresh air, where they have opportunities to develop their physical skills. Children are learning to understand risk. They climb equipment ensuring that they take turns as well as understanding why they need to apply their sun cream to keep them safe in the sunshine.

Staff ensure that those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other barriers to learning are well supported during transition times. When children are ready to move to their next steps, staff create tailored plans with colleagues and parents and carers. This helps all children to make smooth transitions into their next stage in learning.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Overall, leaders have a clear understanding of the setting's strengths and areas for development. Through their continuous improvement plan, they work closely with staff to identify areas for improvement. For example, they identified that further improvements were required regarding the teaching of mathematics. Leaders recognise that there is further work to do to embed wider mathematical concepts into the planning of the curriculum.

Staff are generally well supported through regular supervision meetings, where practice is discussed and feedback is provided. Targets for improvement are linked to the setting's overall improvement plan and staff's individual professional development. However, some targets are not specific. This means that on occasion, staff do not have clarity about what is expected of them. Staff report that they feel valued and that their workload is manageable.

Leaders work effectively with parents and carers, schools and external agencies to support children's learning, care and transitions. Parents speak positively about leaders and staff. They value the regular communication they receive, both verbally and electronically, and say that they feel included in their child's learning. For example, stay-and-play sessions help them to experience their child's learning environment. Leaders engage appropriately with external professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other barriers to learning. Additional funding is used to help children make progress and reduce barriers to learning.