Seesaw Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enthusiastically choose what they would like to play with and explore in the pre-school. They gather around the water tray and watch what happens when the water overflows from a watering can they have filled. Staff encourage them to describe what they see, helping them use mathematical language, such as 'full' and 'heavy'.

Children feel valued in the pre-school. They choose where their artwork should be displayed on the walls. Staff ask children what they would like to be written next to their pictures, contributing to children's growing positive self-esteem. Children share their own family books with friends. The individual books contain photographs of important people in each child's life, helping them identify differences and similarities they can celebrate.

Children pretend to be dentists. They brush models of teeth, allowing them to practise how to brush their own teeth. This contributes to children's growing awareness of good oral health. From a young age, children confidently know why and how to wash their hands, helping them develop good hygiene routines.

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

• Staff encourage children to think about objects placed in a clear cube. Children actively seek out the 'curiosity cube' to see what is inside. They talk with their friends and staff about what they see and understand about the objects. This helps children gain confidence to speak in small groups.
• The manager carefully allocates additional funding received for individual children to help support their learning and development. This helps to ensure that all children make good progress during their time in the pre-school.
• Children are happy and settled in the pre-school. Staff supportively reassure, praise and encourage new children who quickly build strong and trusting bonds with their key persons. This helps children feel safe and secure.
• Staff work closely with parents and carers. Together they discuss how they can consistently manage children's behaviour, emotions and key developmental milestones. For example, staff and parents discuss the best time to begin toilet training. This helps children's transition from wearing nappies to be as smooth as possible.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. Dedicated staff help them identify their emotions when they pick pebbles with a face that represents how they are feeling. Staff encourage children to find the words they need to describe that feeling, helping children build positive ways to express themselves.
• Children have a positive attitude towards learning. They gather around staff to see and hear what they are doing with others, squeezing in to listen to a story or to play in the home corner. The manager ensures that the younger children have opportunities to play and learn in smaller groups away from their older peers. This helps children learn at their own pace at a level that suits their stage of development.
• The manager ensures staff have regular supervision meetings to help identify training and support methods to help build on their professional development. In addition, regular team meetings help all the team openly discuss how to make continual improvements to the quality of education they provide.
• Staff understand their roles to help keep children safe and healthy in the pre-school. This includes completing routine tasks. However, at times, staff prioritise these routines over the learning experiences children have. For example, when children are engrossed in listening to a story, they are taken to have their nappies changed. This reduces opportunities children have to reach a natural end in their chosen activity.
• Staff use regular assessments to help them identify what children need to learn next in a sequence that builds on what they already know and understand. However, not all staff effectively use this information to consistently offer new experiences and challenges that are suited to children's individual learning needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• allow children time to find a natural end in their play and explorations, which includes finding ways to reduce unnecessary disturbance during routine tasks
• support staff to continue to build on what children already know and understand in exciting and memorable ways.