Moat Street Pre school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are settled and happy. They develop friendships with staff and other children. Staff are exceptionally kind, caring and patient. This helps to promote children's strong sense of belonging in the pre-school. Children thrive on staff's overall high expectations for them. There is a strong ethos of supporting children to become independent, confident, and the best they can be. Children are confident and articulate with visitors. They urge them to come and see the 'robin bird' they have discovered outside.

Children show good imaginative skills as they explore water, plants and herbs to make their own mixtures. They tell staff they have made 'strawberry soup'. Children are mesmerised as they listen to stories read by staff in an animated and engaging way. This helps to promote a love of books and reading. Children learn about the world around them. They use magnifying glasses as they eagerly investigate bugs that live in the garden. Children behave well. They follow daily routines and happily help to tidy away their toys. Children learn to share resources with their friends as staff deal with small disagreements fairly. This results in children saying 'thank you' to their friend when they offer a toy back they have taken.

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

• Staff morale is high and they work seamlessly together as a team. Staff state they are not overburdened by their workload and feel that their well-being is protected by the provider. Staff comment they feel blessed to work in the pre-school.
• Staff promote children's communication and language development very well as they engage and interact with them. They hold meaningful conversations with children and ask them open questions to encourage their thinking.
• Children benefit from a well-considered curriculum. Staff know the children well and plan a particularly inviting and interesting environment that promotes child's interests and learning. For example, children spend a long time using their small-muscle skills to create their own pretend cakes out of play dough.
• Staff instinctively know when to join children in their play, or when to allow them to play with friends or on their own. However, occasionally staff do not always encourage children to solve problems in their play to develop their critical-thinking skills. For example, when children ask how they can get stones into a toy digger bucket, staff instantly give them suggestions rather than encouraging children to think for themselves.
• Staff introduce children to some mathematical concepts, such as helping them understand positional language. However, they do not always further children's mathematical skills routinely throughout the day.
• Staff reward children's milestones and good behaviour with a 'warm fuzzy'. Children receive and collect pom-poms for kindness and good behaviour throughout the session and place these into a jar. When the jar is full the children can choose a reward day. This helps to promote good behaviour and positive attitudes to learning.
• Staff enable children to make choices. As children arrive each day, they choose a stick displaying their name. They take their name stick and decide which story they would like to listen to at story time. They then add their stick to a jar in order to vote for their chosen book. This helps children to learn that their thoughts and opinions are valued and make a difference.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on children being independent when managing their own self-care. For example, children learn to blow their nose and check it is clean in the mirror, they know to then dispose of the tissue in the bin and wash their hands.
• Staff build on children's previous experiences at home. Children explore a wide range of different sensory experiences, such as painting with different materials, exploring water, sand and play dough. Parents comment positively about the care and education their children receive at the pre-school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to extend opportunities for children to explore further and develop their skills in thinking critically and solving problems
• support staff to deliver a stimulating curriculum for mathematics, introducing children to different mathematical concepts, such as counting.