Netherfield Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely confident, enthusiastic and independent learners. They excitedly greet staff and their friends with great delight, showing enormous anticipation for their day. Children have exceptionally warm and respectful relationships with the staff. This allows them to feel safe, secure and develop their confidence to believe in themselves. Children demonstrate tremendously high levels of confidence.

Staff plan a remarkable, interesting and exciting curriculum. This enables children to be curious and inquisitive in their play, showing extreme motivation to learn. Children have free access to an enormous range of high-quality, stimulating and very intriguing resources. Staff make excellent use of children's interests. They further stimulate children's excitement, imagination and physical and language development during their play. For example, children enthusiastically hunt through sand looking for hidden bugs. They skilfully recall how to carefully transport bugs to the bug garden and how to ensure they are safe. Children learn how to care for bugs and plants, and learn about the life cycle of animals, to further stimulate their learning. Staff further support children's learning through conversations and resources to complement their interests.

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

• The manager is inspirational. She values her staff and ensures they are part of any progress or change. The dedicated and committed staff are extremely supportive, motivating and inspire each other. The manager has very high expectations of herself and consistently drives to improve practice and enhance the opportunities and experiences for all children. Highly reflective self-evaluation accurately helps target improvements and shape the outstanding service provided.
• The manager and staff implement a unique curriculum that is designed to stimulate and inspire children. Children are exceedingly motivated and tremendously enthusiastic to join in, share and cooperate with each other. Children clearly make full use of their creative potential in a variety of ways. They demonstrate high levels of self-control and consistently keep on trying hard, even if they encounter difficulties. For example, children concentrate intently trying to master using pipettes, prior to experimenting mixing water with cornflour.
• Staff consistently involve children in 'mind maps', enabling children to further develop and build connections and consequences for activities. For example, children thoroughly recall and understand the rules regarding using the ball pool. Children have consistently high levels of respect for others. They confidently demonstrate an excellent understanding of why behaviour rules are in place and recognise the impact their behaviour has on others.
• Staff provide excellent opportunities to help develop and extend all children's language and literacy skills. Children are extremely confident when talking to friends, adults and others.
• Excellent support for mathematics is imbedded in everyday play and activities. Children learn about capacity as they fill and empty containers using sand and water. They count, compare sizes and talk about capacity as they play imaginatively.
• Staff promote children's health and welfare needs exceedingly well. They teach children excellent hygiene routines and support them to manage their own personal care. For example, children take full responsibility for serving themselves at snack time, pour their own drinks and safely cut fruit. Children become independent in self-care, including putting on their own outdoor clothes. They demonstrate an excellent awareness of washing their hands on arrival and after playing in the garden. These skills, along with the impressive learning that takes place, prepare children well for moving on in their education.
• Staff keep parents fully up to date with their children's learning and give excellent support when appropriate. Parents are extremely complimentary about the staff and the relationships their children have with them.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive superb support. Staff identify outstanding strategies to support individual needs of children. Therefore, any gaps in learning and behaviour are rapidly identified and supported. Staff have excellent relationships with other professionals involved in children's care. The manager uses additional funding astutely to address gaps in learning to help children catch up quickly. All children, including those in receipt of additional funding, make excellent progress in their learning and development.