Peacock Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are nurturing and responsive to children's needs. They have built excellent relationships with children and their families, allowing all involved to feel trusted and supported at the pre-school. This helps children have positive attitudes to their learning. For instance, they talk enthusiastically about the pre-school when they are at home and look forward to attending.

Children explore resources alongside each other, reminding each other of what they need to do. They become engrossed for extended periods in sensory play as they mix, tip, pour and stir a variety of wet and dry materials including oats, rice and lentils. They point to and comment on pictures of themselves and others on display. This helps children to feel a sense of belonging in the setting.

Independence skills are well supported. For example, children are encouraged to put on their own coats and pour their own drinks at snack time. They proudly demonstrate how to correctly use metal fruit knives, showing a good understanding of how to cut food safely.

Children make full use of the outdoor area. They practise climbing with ropes and carefully navigate steps with railings. Children are constantly curious about their surroundings. They investigate the natural world, finding creatures that they eagerly bring to adults for further exploration.

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

• Staff offer exceptional support to families of armed forces personnel. For example, 'deployment boxes' contain stories, links and resources to help children manage the challenge of having a parent on deployment. Children are supported to post messages overseas, with serving parents writing directly back to the pre-school or engaging via video link. As a result, children are better able to cope with these periods of time apart. This has positively improved children's well-being and behaviour.
• The highly committed manager has been instrumental in the redevelopment of the garden. For instance, children are now enjoying a more accessible, purposeful space with an all-weather pagoda. In addition, the manager has a clear vision for further improvements, including the installation of vegetable and flower planters that will link gardening and cooking activities.
• Management have devised a curriculum that supports social skills, physical activity and language development. Children are active during outdoor play, while developing important turn-taking and sharing skills. Staff have meaningful conversations with children about what they are doing and what they have learned. However, staff's understanding of the language curriculum and the overall aims for children's language learning is not yet fully embedded. As a result, children do not consistently benefit from hearing and learning new vocabulary during activities.
• Children enjoy learning about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. For example, children's views were sought regarding the healthy foods that they enjoy. Children then used these foods to make their own lunches on site. Staff used this opportunity to teach children about the importance of eating a healthy diet. This has had a positive impact on children as they talked about what is good for them while developing their independence skills around food.
• Parents say the pre-school feels like a 'home away from home' and that their children 'thrive' there. Close collaboration between staff and parents means everyone has the same expectations for children to succeed. For instance children who need specific support with self-help skills are very well cared for because both parents and staff use similar strategies to support their independence.
• Children of all ages and abilities learn alongside each other. They listen and attend during circle time. Children crowd around water trays to make 'lemon tea' using jugs, cups, cold water and slices of citrus fruit. While activities such as this clearly engage children, the learning intentions are not always differentiated to meet the needs of the most-able children. This means that, on occasion, some children are not provided enough opportunity to deepen their knowledge and understanding of what they need to learn next.
• The manager and special educational needs coordinator together form a high-functioning team, supported by an experienced and hands-on operations manager. They employ reflective practice to assess provision in a constant drive to improve outcomes for children through training and peer support. In addition, support staff unfamiliar with the setting are given the knowledge they need to work effectively with all children very quickly.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further develop the curriculum to ensure children receive consistent support to explore new and emerging language
• ensure all activities offer a deeper exploration of knowledge and skills for the most-able children.