Pangbourne Valley Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this warm and welcoming pre-school. The kind and caring staff provide a nurturing environment, where children feel safe and secure. Children form friendships with ease and play well together. For example, they pretend to be a member of staff reading a story. They sit on a chair, expertly face the book to their friends and describe what they see on each page. In this way, children copy staff teaching to support their own learning.

Children generally behave well. Staff sensitively guide children to use effective systems if minor disagreements do occur. For instance, when children want the same toy, a sand timer is used to encourage them to wait patiently for their turn.

Children show increasing independence when managing their self-care needs. For example, children wash their hands correctly at appropriate times in the day. They are reminded to wash away the germs before they eat. This helps children understand the importance of maintaining good health routines.

Children love being outdoors, where they practise and master good physical skills. For instance, they carefully manoeuvre around obstacles on bicycles and climb over tyres in the garden with good body control. Children persevere when involved in play, showing high levels of confidence and self-esteem.

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

• Leaders and staff strive to provide high-quality education and care for all children. They have clearly defined roles and responsibilities and work closely to fulfil these effectively. For instance, they have given an even higher priority to supporting children's speaking skills, due to children's interactions with the wider community being greatly reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The special educational needs coordinator and literacy leader collaborate to identify and help children with speech delay. Staff use appropriate interventions, such as using pictures to represent objects, to successfully address gaps in children's communication skills.
• Leaders and staff recognise the importance of raising children's awareness of the diverse cultures represented at the pre-school. For example, children share foods and dress up in traditional costumes from different cultures. Parents and staff help provide real life opportunities, such as handling ornate headdresses from Ukraine. This helps children to consider similarities and differences between their own and others' way of life.
• Staff provide children with real life experiences to enhance their learning further. They plan activities that spark children's interests. For instance, staff take children to the local shops to buy ingredients to make banana milkshake. In this way, children acquire knowledge and skills in other areas of the curriculum. They learn to write a list, use coins to pay and follow a recipe to make a healthy drink.
• Children develop a real love for books and like their favourite stories read again and again. In this way, children learn about story features, such as how a character may be feeling based on the story plot. Children's learning is maximised when staff read stories in small groups and on an individual basis. However, in a large group of mixed ages and abilities, staff are unable to sustain all children's attention and some become restless. This causes distraction to those children who are trying hard to listen and enjoy the story.
• Children demonstrate that they are familiar with the pre-school's routines. This helps them to know what is expected of them. For example, at lunchtime, they readily fetch their packed lunch boxes and find an available space on the table. However, on occasions, staff interrupt children when engrossed in their play to move on to an adult-led activity, such as story time. This disrupts children's engagement as they do not have enough time to finish off their chosen activity.
• Parents speak highly of the leaders and staff. They say the staff 'go out of their way to bring out the best' in their children. Parents attend regular meetings with staff to discuss children's learning and development. They access newsletters and online learning records to keep them informed and involved. Parents are impressed with their children's growing independence skills, as well as their increasing confidence when speaking with new people.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to plan more precisely for individual children's learning needs when children of mixed ages and abilities are grouped together
• review the daily routines to give children more time to become fully engaged in their self-chosen play.