Oakley Pre-school CIO

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children to the pre-school and share pertinent information with parents as they greet them. Children are happy and confident and quickly settle into the dedicated pre-school environment. Those requiring some additional support are sensitively supported by staff to resolve their worries and settle into the day. Children move confidently between the indoor and outdoor spaces, making choices of where they wish to play and learn.

Children behave extremely well and understand staff's high expectations of them. They play collaboratively and staff quickly deal with any minor disagreements. Staff support children to recognise and name their emotions and feelings, which helps them to begin to develop the skills needed to regulate their own reactions and behaviours.

Leaders and staff deliver a suitable and ambitious curriculum to meet the needs of all children. This includes those that are disadvantaged and where there are emerging gaps in learning. All children make good progress from their starting points. Leaders include staff in the design and planning of the curriculum to ensure they fully understand the learning intentions for all children. Leaders work closely with the on-site school to line up the pre-school curriculum with the school foundation stage curriculum, to further support transitions.

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

• Leaders are extremely passionate and aim to do the absolute best they can for the children and families that use their service. They have a really good understanding of their community, children, and families attending. The strong partnerships between leaders, trustees and the staff team, ensure they work collaboratively to provide a quality service and meet children's individual needs. Leaders take swift action to make improvements and ensure requirements are met following any incidents, such as reviewing risk assessments and making changes to the premises.
• Leaders and staff use themes to support the delivery of the curriculum each day, for example birds and also focus books, such as 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. The ultimate aim of the curriculum is for children to leave the setting with relevant knowledge and skills to be ready for the next stage in their learning. Staff take account of children's interests, likes and dislikes when planning themes and activities to support them to engage well in learning. Staff feed into the daily planning anything their key children need to be focusing or working on. However, they are not always consistently sharing this information with parents to enable them to support children's learning at home.
• The arrangements to meet the needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and where there are emerging gaps in learning and development are strong. Leaders understand their roles and responsibilities and work closely with staff, parents and other professionals. They create the right support for individual children to ensure they make the progress they are capable of. Leaders seek external help and support, as needed, and ensure children are referred for any external assessments. Leaders have funded additional support from a local charity after identifying a need to increase staff confidence and skills. This also gives them the opportunity to provide occupational therapy and speech and language therapy at pre-school, which otherwise can be difficult to access.
• Children benefit from trips in the local community and wider afield, supporting them to learn more about the world around them. Staff take children for regular walks in the local community, such as to the local shops and park. This helps them understand more about where they live.
• Staff help children to learn how to make healthy choices and to understand why certain foods are good for their bodies and development. Children manage their own self-care well, for example toileting, handwashing and nose blowing. However, staff are not fully consistent in their approach to developing children's independence skills further. At times, they complete relatively simple tasks for them and miss opportunities for children to have a go at doing things for themselves.
• Leaders and staff support children's language development well. They use picture boards, as needed, to ensure children can access the core curriculum. Staff introduce new vocabulary through their interactions and stories, and songs. Children enjoy listening to stories and retelling these through role play and activities. Children laugh with delight at the sounds of the different actions when they go on a bear hunt. This supports children to develop a love of books.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consistently share information with parents about children's progress and next steps in learning to keep them better informed and to help them further support their children's learning at home
• support staff to recognise opportunities when they can encourage children to develop their independence skills further.