Mitcheldean Early Learners

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children thoroughly enjoy themselves at the pre-school and make excellent progress from their individual starting points. They arrive full of enthusiasm and smiles, bursting to tell staff their news. They have excellent relationships with the staff, who have an in-depth understanding of their needs, interests and abilities. Children are highly motivated to join in the carefully planned activities and are very familiar with the daily routine. They are extremely well behaved. They recall the setting rules and demonstrate a clear understanding of the reason why each rule is important. They show great curiosity and are keen to explore and investigate. They study caterpillars and show awe and wonder as they discover they have turned into chrysalis.

Children gain excellent independence skills from a young age; two-year-olds join their older peers and change from their outdoor shoes into their 'daps'. When children move on to school they are very capable of managing their clothing, can unpack their lunches, cut with scissors, recognise their names, simple words and can often recognise the names of others. Two-, three- and four-year-olds talk confidently, making their needs known, sharing their ideas and recalling past experiences. Children's motivation to learn is impressive.

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

• The manager is highly enthusiastic in her role. She fosters team working with a passion to ensure that every child has the very best learning experiences at the pre-school. She has an excellent overview of where every child is in their learning. She plans an exciting curriculum that she ensures is implemented and reviewed successfully to achieve the best outcomes for children.
• The manager and staff team create an inspiring learning environment. They use every area of the building and outdoors to their full potential. They adorn the walls with displays that incorporate positive images of diversity, letters and numerals, and interesting photographs, pictures and topical information that they draw children's attention to and actively use as a learning resource.
• The manager, business manager and committee provide excellent staff support and work proactively to evaluate the effectiveness of the provision and drive continuous improvement. They embrace training opportunities to enhance the support and learning of children. For example, staff learned sign language to support children who find communication more difficult.
• Every child receives excellent support from staff. Key persons work in close partnership with parents to tailor planned activities and build on what children know and can do. Staff instinctively challenge children to develop their language, introduce new vocabulary and increase their mathematical awareness. They encourage children to develop a love of books and children relax in the reading pods and book area, sharing stories with their friends. Children listen avidly to stories. They talk about the characters and what they see in illustrations.
• Staff use every opportunity to foster children's self-esteem. Children receive high praise for their achievements. Staff instinctively promote children's independence, physical skills, creativity and understanding of the world. They encourage children to be inquisitive and to use their ideas.
• The manager uses interesting ways to help children learn to value diversity and people's differences. For example, children excitedly await postcards telling them about Paddington's travels to different countries of the world. They welcome elderly members of the community to join the children for activities.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive excellent support. Staff ensure children with SEND are fully included. They seek outside professional support as appropriate and implement individual learning plans successfully. The manager uses extra funding exceptionally well to benefit the children to which it relates, for example to enable continued attendance and to buy additional resources to further support children's progress in development of literacy skills.
• Partnerships with parents are outstanding. Parents describe the pre-school team as friendly, welcoming and highly supportive. They praise the support staff give their families and how impressed they are with their children's progress. They feel extremely well informed about their children's learning and really appreciate opportunities to join their children in the setting. For example, they enjoyed afternoon tea to celebrate the King's Coronation. They join in events such as sports days, Harvest and Christmas celebrations at the church. Recently, parents worked with staff to raise awareness of oral health. Children learned about the importance of cleaning their teeth and completed a sticker chart to record teeth cleaning at home. During the inspection one child was heard to enquire if a member of staff had remembered to clean her teeth.