Southborough Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The children are enthusiastic learners, who love coming to pre-school, and they thrive as a result of the rich and ambitious curriculum. Children are extremely happy and demonstrate high levels of emotional security, confidence, and self-esteem. Children are at the centre of every decision staff make. Children are supported in developing independence rapidly through the daily routines and experiences. Children thoroughly enjoy exploring the carefully planned environment in an unhurried atmosphere. They make independent choices from highly motivating activities that capture their curiosity for learning and experiences are continually evolving, both indoors and outdoors. Children are completely involved in play and learning. They consistently play and laugh together. For example, they are fascinated as they discover the correct consistency the 'cement' needs to be to stick the bricks together. They smile and giggle with excitement and relish the praise they receive from staff. Children demonstrate excellent spatial awareness and coordination skills as they negotiate building stepping-stone bridges and use the rope swing safely. Children confidently talk about their learning. They use some rich vocabulary.

Children enjoy stimulating experiences as they learn about different artists from growing sunflowers. Children behave extremely well. They work together and cooperate exceptionally well as they fix the wooden structure in the garden. They show secure relationships with staff and happily seek reassurances when needed, in the form of a supportive hand or cuddle.

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

• Staff are highly skilled and knowledgeable and demonstrate a deep understanding of how children learn. They plan and implement a sequential curriculum based on the children, their interests, and the next steps in their learning. All children make outstanding progress in relation to their starting points, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Assessment is rigorous and identifies areas where children need extra help, and steps to support these are put in place.
• Children thoroughly enjoy their learning and show a keenness to explore and discover. They develop a love of literature, as books are superbly placed within the environment to spark their interest and enhance their learning. They know how to handle books and are excited to listen and join in stories. Staff share stories to extend children's interests, for example, from the story 'A Starry Night', children learned about stars and space.
• Staff use a range of effective strategies to support children's language development. They talk clearly and give children plenty of time to practise speaking. Staff listen and repeat any words children say, for younger ones to support their pronunciation. Older children become confident and develop an extensive range of vocabulary. Children excitedly explain how they build the dinosaur with large boxes and how banging the nails in was very tricky. Staff's high-quality interactions and inspiring conversations help to develop children's vocabulary and confidence in speaking very well.
• Staff know the children very well and can talk in depth about their needs, next steps in learning and unique personalities. Staff use their knowledge of children's interests to create exciting development opportunities. For example, children eagerly use tongs to make 'pom-pom' ice cream, developing their small hand muscles. Children's mathematical skills are encouraged as they build ramps to race balls of play dough and cars to see which is fastest.
• Staff support children to develop healthy lifestyles. Children have regular access to fresh air and fully enjoy time in the pre-school garden. Children enjoy healthy snacks and are keen to explain to adults about oral health. For instance, they enthusiastically tell the inspector what happened when the egg was placed in a fizzy drink and how they used toothbrushes to clean it.
• The managers and staff build impressive, effective relationships with parents. They get to know them and the children exceedingly well indeed. Managers and staff fully engage parents in their children's learning and keep them updated about progress. Parents comment on how the home learning and support from staff are effective in promoting their children's learning. The pre-school builds extremely strong partnerships with other agencies involved with the children. These strong partnerships help to raise outcomes for children to the highest level.
• The managers have established a wide-ranging system to support staff in further developing their knowledge and skills. The knowledgeable managers and staff consistently work alongside each other to share their expertise. This helps them to have a broad understanding of how children learn and develop. This has an extremely positive impact on children's learning.