Smallworld Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arriving at the pre-school and out-of-school club are pleased to see the friendly, welcoming staff. They follow well-established routines that help them to feel confident and safe. Pre-school children find the fish-shaped card that has their written name on it. They attach it alongside the name cards of the other children who are attending. This helps children to feel part of the group. It promotes their early literacy. Staff teach children to meet the different expectations for their behaviour across the day. Children move energetically and giggle during a 'wake and shake' music session. At register time, children know that they must sit with their group and be ready to speak and listen.

Parents and carers praise the warm relationships that they form with managers and staff at the pre-school. Staff learn to say key words in children's home language when they speak English as an additional language. This helps children to settle in and feel secure. Parents visit the pre-school to tell children about their jobs. This helps children to learn more about the world. Parents like the photos that they receive via an online app. They say that the photos help them to hold conversations with children about what they do at pre-school.

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

• Managers follow well-established systems for supervising staff and monitoring their performance. They regularly observe staff's practice and provide feedback to help them to improve. However, sometimes, the feedback focuses too heavily on the content of the activity and too little on the detail of the member of staff's teaching. This slows staff's progress towards achieving the highest quality of teaching that promotes children's swiftest progress.
• Children take part in activities and routines that help to promote their progress. That said, there are occasions when the intentions for children's learning are not clear enough. For example, children are excited by a selection of interesting items on a table. However, staff have not given enough consideration to what they want the children to do and learn. Children lose interest and move away.
• The well-qualified team apply what they learn at training courses to their practice. For example, they designated an area of the room as a space for child-led, exploratory play. Children design and build using a rich array of everyday items. They try out their own ideas about what to add next to their constructions. Staff sensitively observe and help. The play promotes children's creativity and decision-making skills well.
• Children with emerging and identified special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported effectively. The special educational needs coordinator seeks timely advice from specialist services, such as speech and language therapy. She helps staff to incorporate the advice into children's individual learning plans. Children make good progress from their starting points.
• The daily programme includes time for children to work in small groups. This enables staff to sequence children's learning as they grow. For example, the youngest children have a short group time then go to play. Older children spend longer periods in adult-led groups. This helps them to be ready to start school when the time comes.
• Staff promote children's communication development. They use real objects to convey meaning to children who are not yet talking. For example, staff show children a nappy when they tell them that it is time for a nappy change. Staff carry a set of small cards. The cards help children to understand the words that they hear. They know that a red circle means that an activity is finished. The strategies promote children's understanding and independence.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus more closely on the detail of staff's teaching, so that they know exactly what to do to keep improving
• check that staff know precisely what they want the children who participate in activities to learn and remember.