Precious Playdays

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff successfully deliver a carefully constructed and highly effective curriculum that builds on every child's individual starting points. Children are at the heart of everything that happens at the pre-school. Staff fully understand the impact their positive interactions have on children's learning and development.

Staff focus on physical interactions when children start, to build secure and trusting relationships. Children respond positively to this method of communication, particularly children who are not able to speak when they start. Strong bonds quickly form between staff and children, and as a result, children thrive.

Careful planning leads to children's experiences developing in a methodical way. Opportunities for children to practise and strengthen their skills are abundant. This helps children to consolidate their knowledge and securely embed their learning.

Children become able to articulate how they feel, and staff work with them to resolve any minor conflicts with their friends. Staff respect that children need time to regulate their emotions before they are ready to discuss what has happened. Children learn that their views and opinions matter to the staff. Relationships between children and adults are positive, and there is a calm atmosphere throughout the pre-school.

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

• Children's language skills flourish, and they become confident communicators, holding discussions with others. They speak openly to visitors about what they have created and the process they followed. Staff promote the use of new and relevant vocabulary, using these words in discussions as children play. Children recall these new words frequently, using them independently as they speak to those around them.
• Staff provide children with gentle encouragement and guidance. Children become highly resilient. They persevere and demonstrate exceptional levels of concentration and focus. Staff gently challenge children to think about what they are doing during adult-led activities, giving them time to reflect on what they have done and make changes. They then revisit this with children, praising their efforts as they discuss the changes they have made.
• The highly experienced managers share their knowledge with other staff. They provide helpful videos to explain different teaching approaches, monitoring and mentoring staff where required. They work directly with the children so that staff can learn first-hand from the strong example they set. Staff speak highly of the support they receive, commenting that their well-being is a real priority. Managers are highly reflective, responding to feedback and making changes when things they try are not as successful as they hoped. This enables them to provide consistently high-quality experiences to the children who attend.
• Staff have an exceptional knowledge of all the children at the pre-school. A highly inclusive approach to learning opportunities ensures that all children become respectful and accept others' differences. The multicultural staff team interacts kindly and compassionately with the wide range of families who access the pre-school. All staff have a strong awareness of the wider community which the pre-school is a part of and celebrate this with the children in relevant ways.
• Children confidently lead their own learning. Staff instinctively follow children's lead, recognising when to support children and when to allow them to explore independently. Staff play alongside children, modelling how to use equipment. They extend children's learning through discussion or demonstration when required. They differentiate their interactions to meet each child's needs. As a result, all children get the most out of their interactions with staff and make strong progress in their development.
• Managers plan ahead for the next stage in children's learning. They recognise that children may want to know what is coming next in their learning journey and introduce new topics to children before they plan to fully explore these. This builds a sense of anticipation for children and helps staff to assess what prior knowledge children have of this new subject. The learning experiences on offer relate to children's interests and develop from their curiosity and discussions with staff. This further supports children's high levels of engagement and concentration as they gain a deeper understanding of things which are interesting and relevant to them.