Mini Oaks Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in this friendly community pre-school. All children, including those who are new, enjoy attending. They show contentment on arrival and are warmly greeted by staff, who know the children well. Staff are kind, caring and welcoming towards children. Effective key-person arrangements ensure that all children are well supported and their individual needs are met. This helps children to feel safe and have a strong sense of belonging.

Staff are good role models. They positively remind children of the pre-school's boundaries, such as using 'kind hands' and 'walking feet'. Staff teach children the skills they need to resolve minor issues. They gently support children to learn to cooperate, to play and to share resources with others. For example, staff use sand timers to encourage children to take turns with popular toys. This helps children to behave well and supports them to develop close friendships with others in the setting.

Leaders and staff have thought about how children learn. Overall, they plan a curriculum that is fun, interesting and reflects the knowledge about the children to help them progress. Staff build effective working relationships with families and external agencies to ensure that children receive early help and support. Additional funding is used well to close any gaps in children's learning.

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

• Managers lead the pre-school team with a clear sense of direction, professionalism and dedication. They are passionate about making continual improvements and progress in the pre-school. The pre-school is fully inclusive and welcomes all children. Children successfully gain the skills they need to give them good foundations for their future learning.
• Staff feel well supported through appraisal meetings, mandatory training and various informal communications. However, leaders do not provide concise feedback and structure to the coaching and mentoring of practice to identify staff training and further enhance the quality of education. Nonetheless, leaders have focused successfully on staff well-being and have built a strong and motivated team.
• Staff ensure that children have fresh air and exercise daily. Children enjoy sessions in the woods and relish the outdoor play experiences. They have many opportunities to develop their physical skills. For example, children laugh with joy as they practise their coordination and balancing skills on ride-on toys and bucket stilts. This contributes well towards children's large-muscle movements. However, staff do not provide the same consideration when planning for outdoors as the indoor environment. This means children do not consistently access a broad range of learning opportunities to further support those who prefer to learn outside.
• Staff plan a well-organised indoor environment where children confidently select from the range of activities on offer. Children become deeply involved when playing with their friends. For instance, much laughter can be heard as children happily enjoy dressing up and playing in the pretend kitchen, developing their pretend play. Staff support children's speaking and listening skills well through conversations and sharing familiar songs. Children enjoy sharing books with staff.
• Staff have a clear understanding of what they want children to learn. They help children to get ready for school by teaching them social skills and how they can be independent from an early age. For example, children learn how to make their own sandwiches and help at tidy-up time. In addition, children learn to dress themselves and put on their coats and shoes. They relish the praise that they continually receive from staff, which recognises their unique qualities, efforts and achievements.
• The pre-school's special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) is experienced in her role. She is knowledgeable about the children who require additional support. The SENCo works closely with each child's key person, family and relevant agencies to ensure all children, including those on the pathway to diagnosis, receive targeted support to meet their developmental needs.
• Parents and carers speak highly of staff and how they provide their children with a happy environment where they can play and learn. They comment that staff are kind and go above and beyond to be supportive. Parents receive regular updates about their children's care and development and this helps them to support learning at home. They have noticed the progress their children have made since starting at the pre-school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance planning and teaching to identify wider learning opportunities outdoors and to fully support those children who prefer to learn outside
• build on the arrangements for staff supervision, mentoring and support to further develop their skills, help enrich practice and raise the quality of education to an even higher level.