Mini V Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish at this delightfully warm and welcoming pre-school. Leaders are passionate about early years and committed to providing children with the best early start possible. The dedicated and experienced staff build an excellent rapport with parents, carers and children. They create a safe environment, where children are incredibly happy and quickly grow in confidence. For example, children are excited to show visitors what they have made. They engage in conversations with them, knowing that staff are nearby. All children demonstrate they feel safe and secure. They demonstrate a real sense of belonging in the pre-school.

Leaders and staff know children very well. They create an ambitious curriculum that is sequenced and helps children to build on existing skills. The pre-school team monitors children's learning and development through regular observations and conversations with parents. This helps them to identify next steps to support children to make progress. Staff use their knowledge of children's interests and next steps when they plan motivating activities for children. All children make good very good progress from their starting points in development.

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

• Overall, the quality of education is very good. Staff recognise when children need support and when to step back to allow children time to find solutions themselves. For instance, they avoid helping younger children too quickly, such as when they struggle to peel and slice their bananas during snack time. This well-timed support means that children remain engrossed and obtain skills to be resilient learners. However, occasionally, staff do not consistently stretch and extend the most able children's learning. Therefore, sometimes, staff do not best support these children to build on what they already know and enhance their knowledge.
• Children are highly independent. Staff tailor daily routines so that children develop their independence. This is evident when they give children responsibilities, such as 'helper of the day' and helping to set the tables for snack time. Children take great pride in placing children's name cards next to their friends, so they can sit together. In addition, staff support children to master new skills independently, such as taking responsibility for their personal belongings and their self-care routines. Children rapidly gain the essential skills for their future learning and their eventual move on to school.
• Children access a rich set of experiences that support them to continually build on their existing knowledge. For instance, children are in awe as they create their own science experiments. They explore the reaction between bicarbonate of soda and paint containing vinegar. Children are captivated when staff bring learning to life as they teach children ambitious new words in context, such as
• 'react' and 'explode'. This supports children to develop more complex language.
• Leaders and staff work closely with parents and other professionals to put in place plans to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This helps children with SEND to thrive and make the best possible progress. In addition, staff use additional funding to give children more one-to-one support and provide targeted resources. This helps children with SEND to access learning alongside their peers.
• Children are fully aware of staff's expectations for their behaviour, and they behave exceptionally well. Staff model how to deal with any disputes that occur and teach children the importance of sharing. Staff show a passion for teaching children to show respect for one another. This is evident in the way they speak to children and how children respond.
• Parents receive regular updates, daily feedback and scheduled evaluations to stay informed and involved in their child's progress. Leaders record parents' level of satisfaction with the care and education through feedback in questionnaires. In addition, parents comment that children are also encouraged to complete their own questionnaires, and their views are considered. This supports children to have their say on their own learning.
• Staff work extremely closely with Reception class staff at the host school. They use feedback from the Reception class staff to precisely plan learning experiences for children. This helps children to continue to flourish in their learning and emotional well-being when they start at school.
• The very experienced and long-established staff team works together very well. Staff say they feel very well supported by the leaders in their professional development and well-being. They are very reflective and dedicated to the continuous improvement of the service they provide.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to better recognise, and make more effective use of, opportunities to stretch and extend the most able children even further in their learning.