Princetown Community Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff welcome children and their families to the setting. They form warm relationships with the children and allow time for individual children to settle at their own pace. Parents enjoy the friendly atmosphere of the pre-school and feel that staff support them in meeting the needs of each child. Parents are welcomed into the pre-school where they can share the learning available. Parents enjoy helping their children to practise skills at home such as using scissors safely and learning about letter sounds as they prepare for going on to school.

Staff make good use of a wide range of learning opportunities in and around the setting. Children enjoy trips out onto the moor together. They are excited to visit the librarian at their local library and are enthusiastic about the books read to them. They develop coordination as they learn to skip and jump in a large hall in the Community Centre. Staff make the most of exciting opportunities, such as the air ambulance landing nearby, which the children remember and talk about.

Staff are ambitious for all children to learn and to thrive. They work with the local Children's Centre to offer further support to families. Staff notice what children need to move on to the next stage of learning. For example, they ensure younger children have opportunities to learn to concentrate as they listen in a quiet small group, while older children excitedly predict what might happen next in a favourite storybook.

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

• The staff team works closely together. The manager ensures staff access training to improve their knowledge further, which they share together in order to be consistent, for example, to support younger children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and identify any gaps in children's learning. Staff work with other professionals to support children and their families. This has enabled them to develop new ways to support children to enjoy a healthy diet.
• Children play cooperatively and enjoy being with their friends. Staff support children to take turns and they do so willingly, knowing they will have a turn themselves. Children hold hands as they walk together to the hall and learn to hold the door open for each other. Children listen attentively to the staff and are confident in the routines of the setting. For example, they gather together for the register in the morning and join in counting the children who attend that day.
• Staff have improved the environment outside since the last inspection. Children have access to a range of learning which helps them to build confidence physically, such as balancing on wooden planks and learning to use stilts. Staff teach children to develop strength and confidence when walking on uneven ground. They learn to climb up and down so that they can enjoy moving around safely when they visit the moorland around the setting.
• Staff develop children's communication skills as they introduce them to new vocabulary in stories. They listen carefully to children, responding and answering questions they have about the 'perfume' they are mixing with mud and leaves outside. Where children are in the early stages of developing speech, staff sit closely to engage children to build a tower together with blocks. Staff do not always consistently use a wide range of strategies to develop children's speaking skills further, to help them to find ways to express themselves and to begin to chat with their friends.
• Staff ensure they help to prepare children who will be moving on to school. They invite school staff to visit the setting so that they can get to know the children. Children regularly visit the forest area at the local primary school, which helps them to become familiar with going to visit the school. Staff share photos of the range of learning experiences with parents, who value the communication they have with staff and the ideas they receive for learning at home.
• Staff work collaboratively with parents to support children's progress. For example, they work together supporting children as they learn to use a potty. Staff teach children how to wash and dry their hands themselves, and they encourage children's conversations as they share food together. Children learn about being healthy. They know about the importance of washing the strawberries before eating them, and staff help them to notice the changes to their bodies when they exercise.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more support for children to develop their communication skills so that they learn to express themselves and chat with their friends.