Rush Green Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a warm, welcoming and friendly atmosphere in a well-equipped setting. Children form secure attachments with the staff due to effective settling-in procedures. Staff plan exciting and challenging activities that cover all areas of the curriculum. For instance, they follow the children's interest in vehicles and provide different sizes of cars, ramps, and road maps. Staff are enthusiastic and support the children in making their own choices and accessing a wide range of resources, such as cornflour, pasta, paints, and sand. Staff are good role models for the children, demonstrating how to feel different textures and use resources appropriately. Overall, children show good concentration, with positive attitudes towards their learning.

Children make good progress from their starting points, with most activities tailored effectively to their individual interests and needs. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those in receipt of additional funding. Staff actively promote children's listening, attention, and communication skills, with older children listening to and discussing the story of the week. Effective questioning ensures that children are involved and their learning is extended. Children generally behave well and, at the beginning of each session, they are guided to understand simple rules. Staff treat children with kindness and respect, and consistently praise children for helping to tidy up or for being kind to their friends.

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

• The skilled and qualified team monitor and assess the learning and development of all children. They plan and implement a range of challenging activities that cover all aspects of learning. For example, staff help children to work together to create junk models with a range of materials, such as containers, paint, glitter and soft materials. However, the staff could improve their use of their observations to implement children's next steps in learning more precisely.
• Resources are arranged attractively and within easy reach, which allows children to explore and make independent choices. For instance, children become engrossed as they build a house with sand and large play bricks and discuss the size of the house. However, at times, some children lose interest quickly, move from one activity to the next, and miss learning opportunities. This is because staff do not always ensure that all children are fully engaged in their chosen play.
• Staff support children's understanding of mathematics and sensory skills effectively. They teach them how to count objects, introducing words like 'empty' and 'full' to compare capacity, as they collect rainwater in the playground. Younger children are fascinated as they explore using cornflour and enjoy combining coloured spaghetti and water with the flour.
• Staff interact attentively with children and help to develop their reading skills, and imaginations, as they role play and read stories to them. In this way, children become familiar with story themes, characters and wide-ranging vocabulary and language. Young children care for dolls and pretend to make a meal for staff, who skilfully join in with their play.
• Children are encouraged to lead a healthy and active lifestyle, which includes regular physical exercise and outdoor play. For instance, in the playground, children practise their balance and coordination while using rockers, wheeled toys, and giant spinners. Additionally, children are provided with a variety of healthy and nutritious snacks, and the staff talk to them about the benefits of healthy eating. This approach helps children develop positive attitudes towards their physical and emotional well-being.
• Leaders and staff are dedicated to keeping parents and carers informed and engaged. They achieve this through daily discussions, termly newsletters and regular meetings, where parents and carers can communicate with their child's key person. Feedback from parents and carers is positive, with many praising the hardworking staff. They observe that their children enjoy attending the pre-school and have made notable progress.
• The manager is committed and has high expectations for her staff. Effective procedures for recruitment and supervision are in place. Staff say they are well supported and professional development is actively encouraged. For example, recent training in early years has helped staff plan how to develop boys' mark-making skills and promote children's communication and language effectively. Children are well prepared for their future learning, including starting school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make full use of what is known about children in order to deliver opportunities to support their individual next steps more effectively
• develop strategies to help children focus on their self-chosen activities and concentrate for longer periods of time.