Norton Community Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children make a positive start to their learning in this warm and nurturing pre-school. They are helped to build strong bonds with the staff who care for them and smoothly settle into pre-school life. They make good progress overall and are well prepared for the next stage of their learning, including starting school. Staff use their knowledge of children's interests and abilities well to systematically develop their skills and understanding. Children develop their fine motor skills, for example, through making and moulding their play dough or drawing around their friends with chalk on the playground. These, and other skills, lay the foundations for their later writing development.

Staff help children to feel safe and to follow directions and behave well. Children rise to the high expectations of the staff. For instance, children politely work together and give each other directions as they develop and work on their balancing obstacle course or help prepare their own snack. Children learn to assess their own risk as they develop their climbing skills in the well-resourced pre-school garden. Parents are very appreciative of the positive impact staff have on their children's independence, confidence and social skills.

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

• Leaders and staff have precise expectations overall for children's development at each stage of their learning. The curriculum is planned well to support children's progressive development in the different aspects of their learning. The planning is not as sharply developed for mathematics and, as a result, work is not always finely matched to children's learning needs. This includes, for example, building systematically on children's knowledge of quantities represented by different numbers and the early understanding of measures, such as length and capacity.
• The pre-school strongly supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged learners. They identify gaps in children's learning and development at an early stage. Leaders make good use of their staff's skills and partnerships with other professionals, such as speech therapists, to target and support children's development. They use additional funding to prepare children well for their further learning.
• The development of children's communication skills is central to their learning and development. Staff are trained well and skilfully introduce children to a varied vocabulary built on their interests and increasingly broad knowledge of the world. They help children to use their emerging language skills through carefully considered questions, such as 'I wonder how…' or 'What do you think will happen?'
• Staff strongly encourage children's engagement with books and songs to support their learning in many aspects of their development. They support children to enjoy a carefully considered range of fiction and non-fiction that introduces them to exciting new vocabulary and experiences. Staff regularly read stories in highly engaging ways that builds children's concentration and anticipation and leaves them with memorable words and phrases that develop their knowledge of the world and communication skills.
• Staff promote children's good behaviour and personal development well. Staff successfully encourage children to say 'please' and 'thank you' throughout their play and healthy snack times. They support children to make decisions and persist in activities. They skilfully help children who find it hard to manage their emotions to learn to play with others and control their behaviour.
• Leaders are ambitious to ensure that all children leave the pre-school as happy, confident and eager learners. They are well qualified and are strong role models to staff and children. Leaders support staff's professional development well. Staff are passionate about their roles. They work well as a team and share their training and experiences. There is a very low turnover of staff, and morale is high.
• Staff work closely with parents to support children's learning. Parents positively recommend the pre-school. They appreciate the warm and caring attitudes the staff consistently show towards their children and themselves. They welcome the guidance they are given on supporting their children's learning at home and involvement in pre-school life through, for instance, the management committee and supporting the regular trips and visits.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen planning and focus support for staff on the systematic development of children's mathematical learning.