Potley Hill Community Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and independent and thrive in this caring pre-school. From the outset, staff get to know the children and their families well. This helps them gain a good understanding of children's interests and stages of development. Children feel safe and have strong bonds with the staff. As such, children behave well and quickly settle into their chosen play activities.

Leaders and staff plan a highly ambitious curriculum that is designed to motivate and engage children. Staff thoughtfully set up learning opportunities for children to choose and follow their curiosity. For instance, children paint pictures that are inspired by a sea display. Staff plan and provide a vast number of opportunities for children to be physically active, both in the large pre-school outdoor garden and at the forest school. Young toddlers use their large muscles to carry big containers of water as they mix their creations of 'puddings' in the mud kitchen. Older children learn new skills, such as using a whittling knife as they peel carrots. Furthermore, children are skilful as they climb trees and refine their balance on the rope swing in the forest school. These opportunities help children to make excellent progress with their physical skills.

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

• Communication and language are woven into children's play and learning. Staff introduce new vocabulary to children in planned woodwork activities. For example, older children recall the names of tools, such as screwdriver and hand drill. Furthermore, staff plan daily group story sessions. These are highly animated as staff use props when they read the story 'Dear Zoo'. Children giggle and have great fun as they recite the words and correctly predict what animal comes next in the story.
• Mostly, staff promote the importance of maintaining healthy lifestyles. They plan activities to support children's understanding of oral hygiene and encourage children to engage in daily exercise. However, staff do not consider how to teach children the benefits of making healthy food choices.
• Staff teach children how to keep themselves safe while at forest school. For instance, they gently remind children where the boundaries are in the woods and children are taught how to use real tools. Children listen well and look forward to their forest school sessions. Staff further teach children about road safety as they wear their high visibility vests on the short walk to the forest school site. This helps children to learn about safety from a young age.
• Overall, children behave well. Children are helpful as they help to set the table for lunchtime, and they follow routines well. However, staff are not always consistent in how they manage children's behaviour, such as when children have minor disagreements. Staff do not explain to the children how their behaviour can affect others or how to improve it. This does not help children to consistently learn the impact of their behaviours.
• All children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make timely progress from their starting points. Staff work closely with parents and outside agencies to get children the help they need. External professionals regularly visit the nursery to provide staff with strategies to help children make the best possible progress.
• Staff have good partnerships with parents. Parents say that their children have a real choice of their learning at the pre-school. Staff share information with parents through an online platform. This provides them with information about their child's day and how they are progressing.
• Leaders place importance on staff's well-being and professional development. For example, some staff have completed forest school training and have introduced forest school sessions to the curriculum. Staff say they feel well supported in their roles. For example, they have weekly staff meetings to discuss curriculum delivery and the needs of the children. This helps them to continually reflect on their practice.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to help children learn about the benefits of eating healthy foods, to promote their ability to make healthy food choices
• strengthen support for staff to be consistent in their behaviour management strategies to help children to learn why their unwanted behaviour is not acceptable, and how it has an impact on others.