Pennington Park Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children throughout the pre-school are very happy and have a lot of fun as they play and learn. They develop very good social skills as staff support them to understand and respect the feelings and views of other people. Children benefit from the very warm, caring interaction of staff and copy these behaviours in their own interactions. For example, children who are the first to dress for outdoor play help their friends by collecting their boots. Staff also teach children how to share and take turns. Children work together to play complex and imaginative games. They behave very well and are eager to help staff. Children understand the routines of the day and enthusiastically take part in domestic tasks, such as tidying up before going outside to play.

Children are independent and motivated learners. They confidently explore the inviting, and skilfully organised, indoor and outdoor environment. They become engrossed as they take part in the broad and varied range of activities. For example, children concentrate intently as they build towers of bricks. They cope maturely as their tower topples and, with the encouragement of staff, patiently rebuild even higher. Children also make very good use of the well-resourced role-play area. Staff fully exploit the opportunities that this creates to extend children's learning, in particular their communication and language.

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

• The manager and staff work well together as a team, creating a very positive, friendly environment. Staff are clear on their individual responsibilities and have the knowledge they need to carry out their key roles. For example, one member of staff coordinates the care and learning of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. She works closely with parents and knows how to seek support from other professionals should the need arise.
• The individual personalities and learning needs of all children are understood well by their key person and all staff. Although staff use this knowledge well to plan an interesting and challenging programme of activities, they do not always identify precisely what individual children need to learn next. This does not present a risk of children falling behind, as staff are skilled teachers and make excellent use of their interactions to support children's learning. However, this does not fully support staff in recognising whether individual children may be capable of more learning at a slightly faster pace in some areas.
• The wealth of interesting activities that staff provide enable children to experience new things and to learn important skills. For example, children regularly take part in cooking activities. They demonstrate a good knowledge of different foods and confidently talk about how different vegetables are prepared. Staff also make extremely good use of the parkland around their building to encourage children to explore the natural world.
• Staff create an environment that is rich in language. Children hear and use a lot of new and interesting words during group activities. They regularly engage in lively, animated conversations and use their rapidly developing vocabulary to express themselves articulately. Children also develop a love of books as they listen to the stories that are very expressively read by staff.
• Partnerships with parents are friendly. Parents feedback very positively and report that their children thoroughly enjoy attending. The manager and staff provide a lot of information about the day-to-day life of the pre-school, including the activities that children have enjoyed. Staff complete the required progress check for children when they are two years of age and discuss these with their parents. However, they do not routinely provide specific information about children's individual progress to support parents in extending learning at home.
• Staff have effective arrangements to promote children's good health. For example, they use a variety of imaginative ways to teach children about oral hygiene. Staff recognise the importance of providing children with regular exercise. Children spend a lot of time outside, developing their coordination and strength as they use ride-on toys, play with hoops and run around with their friends. Staff also create many opportunities for children to dance and move to action rhymes indoors.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make better use of staff's in-depth knowledge of each child to more precisely identify what they need to learn next
• enhance information-sharing with parents to include more specific details about their child's progress to enable them to extend learning at home.