Shiny Stars Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a warm, family-centred and nurturing environment with exciting and stimulating activities on offer. As a result, children are keen and eager to enter and find out what is on offer for the day. Parents of new children are encouraged to stay until their child is settled and engaged. Children enthusiastically start off the day in the fresh air and can choose from a range of interesting resources. For example, children wash cars with a variety of sizes of sponge, and others manoeuvre on balance bikes and cars around the track, carefully avoiding each other. Staff are nurturing, caring and role model kindness to all, demonstrating the behaviour that is expected. As a result, children behave exceptionally well and demonstrate high levels of cooperation in their play. Staff support children in developing their language skills, and the older children use language highly effectively in their imaginative play.

All staff are passionate about ensuring each child has the best start in life. They have designed an ambitious curriculum that means every child receives the best possible education. Staff embrace the children's own life experience through discussions with parents and talk to children about their lives to help meet their individual needs. They find out what is important and familiar to the child and use this information to enhance their learning and development. For example, the children have access to books in their own language, and familiar items in the home corner strengthen the link between home and pre-school.

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

• The staff team works collaboratively to support children to be independent in their learning and development. Children follow their own interests and adapt resources to meet their needs. For example, children move chairs to make a bus and collect resources to fix the bus. At snack time, children competently use jugs to pour drinks and knives to butter toast. As a result, children show extremely high levels of independence, which puts them in very good stead for moving on to school.
• Partnerships with parents are very well established and valued. Parents provide very positive comments about their children's experiences at the pre-school. They are extremely well informed about their children's learning and say that the staff always have time for them. Staff give them achievable ideas to continue their children's learning at home.
• Leadership is exceptional. The manager has taken every opportunity in the local community to enhance the opportunities of the children. Children visit the local library, shops and museums. Staff visited an outstanding hub for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to further their knowledge of supporting these children. There are close links with the local school in order to ensure smooth transitions. The manager works closely with the local authority early years adviser to provide the best possible training for the staff.
• Supporting children with SEND is a strength of the pre-school. Children leave with the necessary plans in place for a smooth transition into school. Managers support parents with paperwork and strategies for home. Staff have opportunities for specific training for their key children. For example, to support children who speak English as an additional language, staff attended training in speech and language assessment and implement this to ensure children have the language skills necessary for school. Managers research resources to ensure that additional funding is spent in the best possible way.
• Staff's well-being is a high priority for managers. They work incredibly well together. For example, staff worked together to support children learning to use a play car independently. Managers support staff in their ambitions, and a programme of professional development is in place. They monitor staff practice, ensuring that issues are identified and dealt with quickly. Regular meetings with staff support their knowledge of safeguarding and help maintain the high level of well-being.
• Staff are highly skilled at using every opportunity to support the children's development in all areas of learning, particularly in communication and language. They know when to intervene in children's play and when to stand back and watch the learning happen. Staff introduce new vocabulary for familiar items, such as foam, and demonstrate concepts such as big and small. Conversations with children during play quickly clear up misconceptions such as the difference between hands and arms.