Phoenix Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and their families are greeted warmly by staff to help children settle happily into the pre-school. Staff know children well. They have high expectations for children and strive to provide them with strong foundations for life-long learning. Children develop good social skills. Staff create an environment where every child is welcomed and valued. Children display strong bonds with staff. New children quickly build attachments with their designated key person. Kindness and respect are intrinsic to the ethos of the pre-school. Children learn how to value and respect their friends. For instance, as children take part in song time, older children hold out their hands to their younger friends to help them join in.

Leaders and staff work closely to plan and provide a broad curriculum that prioritises children's learning. This is particularly effective in targeting children's communication skills. Where children start behind in some areas of learning, staff quickly identify and put in place any additional support they need to catch up. This has a positive impact for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those in receipt of additional funding. Children develop good attitudes to learning. They are excited to learn and gain good attention skills. For instance, children wait for turns to guess what might be hidden in the box as staff teach them how to listen, share their ideas and to take turns with friends.

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

• Leaders and staff have worked hard to address the actions raised at the last inspection to ensure the safe and efficient running of the pre-school. Improvements to the indoor environment ensure children's safety, including in the event of an emergency fire evacuation. The deployment of staff has been improved to make sure that children are supervised at all times. Leaders have reviewed the routines for visitors so that they are supervised at all times when visiting the pre-school. Procedures to provide Ofsted with information to ensure the suitability of those who make up the committee are effective.
• Leaders recognise priorities for children's learning. The focus on children's communication and language skills is a strength of the pre-school. Staff recognise the importance of children developing good listening and speaking skills. Where children, including those with SEND, start behind their peers in this area of their development, staff swiftly involve other professionals to support children. The strong links with other partners means children benefit from a consistent approach to the areas of speaking and listening skills that they are developing.
• Children are highly independent and take great pride in being able to do age-appropriate things for themselves. Staff recognise and value children's growing independence. For instance, as children sit for lunch, they learn how to open packets of food from their lunch boxes and eat hot meals with cutlery. Staff praise children to promote their confidence in being independent. This helps children to understand and develop the skills that support their eventual move to school.
• Staff provide a range of activities, which ignite children's curiosity. For instance, as staff join in with children's role play, children learn how to put on and fasten dressing-up clothes. Children understand how to help 'patients', they show care and attention by wrapping bandages around staff's arms. Staff understand the overarching aims for children's learning. However, sometimes, they do not fully consider what individual children need to learn next during their play and interactions with them. At times, this limits how staff can adapt their teaching to fully focus on children's next steps in learning to help ensure that all children make the progress they are capable of.
• Staff recognise and value the partnerships they build with children's families and carers. Parents say that the 'family feel' of the pre-school contributes to children's confidence in new situations, including attending pre-school. Staff use daily conversations and online platforms to share children's daily activities and their progress. However, a clear two-way flow of information with parents to enhance and share ideas consistently to enable them to support learning at home is not yet fully embedded.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to focus their teaching on intentions for children's learning during planned activities to help all children make even better progress
• enhance partnerships with parents to improve the two-way flow of information regarding children's learning and development to support parents to continue their child's learning at home.