North Bushey Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children come into the pre-school happily and quickly settle. They enjoy exploring indoors and outdoors. They greet their friends and take part in a broad range of learning opportunities with enthusiasm. Children engage with staff members who take opportunities to bring stories to life. For example, staff and children make chalk marks on the tarmac to represent the different stages of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. They then act out the story, waving their hands to represent 'swishy-swashy grass' and lifting their legs slowly as they walk through the 'sticky mud'. The children squeal with delight when they find the 'bear' in a playhouse and pretend to run away. This helps them to develop their communication skills and shows they understand and can retell stories.

Children are kind to their friends and staff and respect the spaces in which they play. For example, they helpfully tidy-up toys at the end of the session. They comfort any other child who may be struggling to share toys and successfully negotiate minor disagreements between themselves. They learn skills to support them for future learning, for example when they move to school.

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

• The manager has good oversight of the setting. She knows her staff well and they work closely together to find out about children's needs. The manager makes sure staff access all core training to maintain up-to-date knowledge. Staff focus on identified gaps in children's learning. For example, they have a particular focus on children's language development during the COVID-19 pandemic. The manager attended 'terrific talkers' training to help her to support children and shares her new knowledge with the staff team to underpin their practice.
• Children benefit from key persons who understand how to support their emotional security. Staff understand what children know and need to learn next. They work well together to make sure that all children access activities and resources that help them to make progress. However, some staff are not confident to extend activities to drive children's learning further. For example, they do not always respond when the most-able children are ready to move at a faster pace.
• There are effective programmes in place to support children's language development, and their early literacy skills. Staff help children to link letters and the sounds they make to support their early reading skills. Children make the 's' sound for snow and sand and learn to draw letters in sand and foam. This supports their emerging literacy skills and helps them to learn how to pronounce a range of sounds. Staff speak carefully to children to help them learn correct pronunciation, this includes children who speak English as an additional language.
• Children spend most of their time at pre-school taking part in purposeful play. However, at times, younger children find it harder to engage, particularly in larger group activities. Some of these are longer than necessary for their stage of development. These learning opportunities are less successful than others.
• Staff use robust risk assessments to keep the pre-school safe and suitable for children to use. They help children learn how to keep themselves safe as they remind them to walk indoors and to use scissors and other tools carefully. Children are able to be independent in their self-care with gentle support. They put their own coats on to go outside and manage to push their sleeves up to wash their hands.
• There are effective partnerships in place with parents, who praise the support they receive from staff. This includes times when restrictions have been in place in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and staff adapted to telephone contact with parents. However, the setting has yet to establish secure communication with other settings that children attend to support more continuity in their learning.
• Children receive consistent messages about their behaviour, which helps them to manage their own feelings. Staff support children who may be struggling with their emotions with visual prompts, so that they can point to a picture that represents their feeling.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to help them shape activities, such as group times, to extend opportunities for the oldest and most-able children to make their best possible progress and to help the younger children be more engaged
• develop partnerships with other settings that children attend to help provide more continuity in their learning.