Sonning Common Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children and their families at this inclusive pre-school. Children happily enter the setting and are eager to find their friends and choose what they want to play with. For example, children choose to join their friends in decorating dinosaur models. They demonstrate their impressive listening skills as they hear stories being read to them. Staff's interactions with children are nurturing and supportive. They offer children lots of encouragement and praise when they try hard to achieve their best. This helps to support children's self-esteem and confidence.

Staff support children's communication and language skills well. They readily use new words to build on children's increasing vocabulary. For instance, as children help to make play dough, staff introduce descriptive words, such as sticky, floury and squidgy. Children then use these words in their own play. Children show their impressive problem-solving skills as they think of ways to remove the play dough from their hands. Staff provide ideas to some children who struggle to do this. This helps to support children's independence as they play.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. For instance, children are reminded to use please and thank you. Staff teach children to be patient and take turns. They plan small-group sessions, such as when children choose a number from a box to name and place correctly on a number line.

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

• Leaders and staff work together to evaluate the pre-school. They hold regular meetings to discuss what is going well and identify areas for improvement, such as ensuring their planning takes account of children's needs, abilities and interests. They actively take into account the views of children, staff and parents. For instance, a lending-library service is available for parents to read stories with their children. This helps to promote children's love for books at the pre-school and at home.
• Staff support children to gain essential knowledge and skills for their next stage in education, such as when they encourage children to be independent from an early age. Staff provide ample opportunities for children to practise and manage their self-care needs. For instance, younger children follow older children to take off their wellington boots and place them on the rack before they come indoors.
• Children learn how to adopt healthy lifestyles from the outset. They understand the importance of thoroughly washing their hands and eating healthy foods. Children benefit from exerting themselves physically. For example, they run, jump and balance on outdoor equipment with increasing agility.
• The manager and staff create a pre-school that is at the heart of the community.
• Children go on outings in the local area, such as to the hardware shop and the library, where they meet the shopkeeper and librarians. In this way, they learn about local people and experience opportunities that are valuable.
• The pre-school manager engages regularly with the local authority advisors to gain further advice and support to help meet the individual needs of children. This includes using effective strategies to help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make progress. Staff complete regular mandatory training to keep their knowledge up to date, such as safeguarding. The pre-school manager observes staff's practice and provides some constructive feedback to them. However, she does not always focus precisely enough on improving individual staff's existing skills and teaching. For instance, some staff do not consistently identify opportunities to extend children's learning.
• Staff get to know children well. They carry out home visits before children start at the pre-school, which helps them to build close relationships from the start. This important information forms a large part of helping new children to settle in. On the whole, staff are available to offer the reassurance and comfort these children may need. However, on occasions, not enough consideration is given to ensuring staff can prioritise time with their key children to best meet their care and learning needs.
• Parents are highly complimentary about the pre-school. They feel that staff are supporting their children very well to make good progress, particularly in their speech, independence and readiness for school. Parents are impressed with the good communication they receive from staff about their children's development. They say they try many of the activities that take place at the pre-school, at home. This helps to support children's continual learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• target staff's professional development needs more precisely to support their continuous professional development
• review and improve the organisation of the key-person system to fully take account of the specific needs of the key children.