Newport Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a supportive yet vibrant environment where children and their parents feel welcome. Children's personal, social and emotional development is promoted effectively. Staff understand children's behaviour and what it is telling them. Children behave well and play cooperatively together. They often invite their friends and staff into their play. Staff are proactive in helping children to develop friendship groups and to work as a team. Children take turns and share with the minimum of adult support. They show that they feel happy, safe and secure with each other and the adults.

Children are fully engaged in the learning opportunities throughout the day. They busy themselves as they confidently lead their own role play or construction work. Children make good progress in all areas, and they enjoy their learning. They learn to listen to adults and heed what they say. Most-able children enthusiastically recount what they have done and which books they have enjoyed. Children who need additional consideration for their learning or well-being are particularly well supported. Parents confirm that they have received useful hints and tips to aid their children's development. They say their older children were well prepared for school.

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

• Leaders and staff have worked hard to provide consistency and continuity through unexpected changes at the setting. Leaders respond well to challenging situations. They have a serious approach to reflection and making continuous improvements. Parents confirm that the impact of recent changes on their children has been minimal.
• Staff successfully plan a flexible curriculum that reflects children's interests and meets their learning needs. They are intuitive to children's needs and quickly adapt or extend activities to suit children's levels of engagement. For example, they harness children's enjoyment of superhero stories as part of world book day; they use the Supertato book to engage children in a healthy eating activity.
• Children's health and well-being are successfully promoted. They have great fun developing their strength, balance and imagination out in the fresh air. They have regular access to a well-planned outdoor area. Children learn to wash their hands as they come indoors before eating. They become increasingly independent in their learning and their personal care.
• Staff help children to understand mathematical concepts as they play. Children readily count the bricks in their towers and learn to recognise familiar numbers. They use mathematical language to talk about size and shape. Children often use these skills to join in with stories or to talk about their pictures and constructions.
• Staff support children's language well. This includes seeking external help promptly when necessary. Staff model good language throughout the session. Staff successfully bring books and stories to life for children. For example, they hide the shark they have made in the park so that children can act out a favourite book. Staff skilfully support children who need extra help with their language. However, some are less clear about the extended vocabulary that most-able children could be learning and practising.
• Leaders and staff acknowledge where minor gaps in the provision have arisen and swiftly implement plans to remedy these. For example, they acknowledge when group times are not supporting children's language development as well as they could. They consider various options to improve matters. Small-group activities during the session are often very successful. However, larger group sessions can still be a little disorganised at times, which limits the learning taking place.
• Staff encourage children to reflect on previous activities and outings that they have taken part in. Children are developing good recall, which consolidates their prior learning. Children enthusiastically recount when they made telescopes to search for the shark in the park. They also remember that they have been taught to brush their teeth in circular movements. While parents, children and staff are keen to talk about the broad range of activities children have enjoyed, they do not all refer to what children have learned, practised or accomplished. This does not fully celebrate the joy of learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• be even more specific about any advanced vocabulary that most-able children could be learning, so this can be more easily shared with staff and parents for consistent support
• acknowledge children's successes even more, for example, by supporting children and adults to celebrate what children have learned, practised or discovered on a more regular basis
• continue to revise group sessions so that learning can be more focused.