Rising Fives Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders have a strong ethos of inclusion for the pre-school, and staff share their high expectations for all children regardless of their ability. Staff focus the curriculum aims and delivery on promoting children's personal, social and emotional development. This precise focus helps all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to be able to access learning and thrive in their development.

Children enjoy learning and take pride in getting things right. They show enthusiasm when working together in small groups. They express their excitement through laughter and smiles as they wait eagerly for responses from their peers. Children listen to stories with interest. They take part in group singing and signing sessions and respond appropriately in circle times, taking turns and talking with assuredness.

Staff's knowledge of their key children helps to build positive, trusting relationships between them. This supports children to feel safe and secure and enables children with a range of social skills to learn, play and communicate alongside each other.

Children are able to talk about what they know and can do. Children communicate their needs and desires to key staff and are clearly listened to, with their views and wishes discussed. This enables children to feel supported and valued at the pre-school, and they display confidence and curiosity with new people as a result.

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

• Following parent consultation and close observation of children, staff currently focus on the teaching of early play skills. They also help children to learn about their feelings and emotions and learn how to respond in different situations. Staff have a good understanding of this focus, which is clearly demonstrated in their planning and delivery of activities. As a result, children make very good progress in these skills.
• The manager's intentions for the curriculum currently centre around the development of children's communication and language. Some staff use opportunities well to help children develop their emerging vocabulary during play, such as by using effective questioning. However, not all staff demonstrate a clear enough awareness of this focus for learning. Consequently, language support is not consistently embedded across the curriculum.
• Children with SEND are very well supported. Staff are able to share detailed insights into children's behaviours. They are highly attentive to changes in the learning environment and how these might impact on children's emotions and well-being. Some staff also use sign language support to communicate to children with additional needs. As a result, children with SEND are able to participate positively in activities they otherwise might find challenging.
• Partnership with parents is productive. Following feedback at stay-and-play sessions, staff have supported parents to reduce children's screen time at home through a variety of strategies. In addition, the curriculum has been adapted to focus on the teaching of play skills as an alternative to solitary time spent on screens. Joined-up approaches, such as this, between pre-school and home, better enable families to explore parenting topics that are important to them. In addition, parent feedback shows positive regard for the communication and support of the pre-school team.
• Staff provide frequent opportunities for children to develop their mathematical knowledge throughout the day. For example, at snack time, children recognise numbers and count out the given number of foods for themselves. This enables children to become more independent while developing their understanding of number in a meaningful way.
• Staff report that they feel well supported by the pre-school manager and that they are able to talk to her at any time about their well-being. They are encouraged to share their ideas at regular team meetings. There are opportunities to develop staff interests through professional training courses. Recent training around behaviour management has enabled staff to reassess the layout of the pre-school. This has resulted in providing a more secluded and quieter area for children for reading, learning and relaxation.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's understanding of the curriculum so that practice is consistently embedded to further support language development.