Springboard Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children excel in this vibrant and nurturing pre-school. There is a tremendous sense of fun and a constant buzz of activity. Teaching is inspirational and activities capture their interests. Children approach activities with curiosity and interest, demonstrating an extremely positive attitude to learning. Children have a can-do approach to the challenges they come across. Their exploration is encouraged and enabled by exceptional qualified practitioners, who expertly support and scaffold children's learning. For example, during a baking activity, children show they are critical thinkers, when they problem-solve to find the right consistency for their mixture.

Children's emotional well-being is highly promoted. They build strong friendships with their peers and flourish within the secure and respectful relationships they have formed with all practitioners. Children's behaviour is exceptional. They take pride in the care of their environment. They are very self-sufficient, putting away their personal belongings, including tissues in the bin, without prompting. Children demonstrate genuine concern for their peers. For example, when enjoying the story, 'Ruby's Worry,' children discuss their own worries. They talk about being worried about dinosaurs, and are confidently reassured by other children who tell them not to worry, because there are no dinosaurs in the story.

Children show excellent balance on the climbing frame, as they chase one another pretending to be pirates. They show strength in their gross-motor skills, as they collectively follow instructions to move a large parachute in different directions. Children develop proficient fine-motor skills through carefully planned and routine activities. This enhances their self-care skills, such as putting on their own shoes and pouring their own drinks. Children are extremely well prepared for their move on to school.

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

• The leadership team is extremely committed to providing outstanding care and education for every child. They have high expectations for all children and create a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment. The highly reflective self-evaluation process in place, enables the team to sustain and build on their outstanding practice.
• Leaders manage a motivated, knowledgeable staff team and effectively support their continuing professional development. This results in a strong and co-cohesive team who consistently provide excellent individual learning experiences for the children. All practitioners speak extremely positively about working at the setting. They say they feel totally supported by the leadership team and their well-being is given high priority.
• Practitioners have extensive knowledge of children's interests, skills, and what they need to know and do next. Children make rapid progress from their individual starting points. Observation and assessment is sharp and practitioners continually review planning to ensure activities are targeted to meet children's specific needs. Planning is significantly enhanced by the effective partnerships working with parents. Together, they achieve a highly impressive, joined-up approach to children's learning.
• Children learn that their opinions are valued, because their views are sought. When asked what they would like in their pre-school, children voted for a swimming pool and a pet. They were delighted with a new paddling pool, and a pair of giant snails to care for. When choosing favourite stories, children respect the majority choice without question, showing great understanding and respect for democracy.
• Practitioners skilfully weave mathematical language into activities, creating natural opportunities for children to develop excellent mathematical skills. For example, children excitedly take turns to weigh their ingredients on traditional balance scales. They correctly predict the movement of the scales, as they excitedly make comparisons of the different sizes.
• There is extremely high focus on the development of children's language and literacy skills. Practitioners are highly skilled in promoting children's language. They actively listen, question, model, repeat, and make suggestions to children, appropriately levelled to their individual needs. Consequently, children are confident communicators and older children use complex sentences as they play.
• Partnership with parents and other settings children attend is exemplary. There are superb strategies in place to involve parents. For example, parents of the older children recently attended a workshop offered by the team to support children in their self-care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team kept in regular contact with families. They suggested activities, including staff recordings of activities for children to watch at home. Consequently, this helped children to settle on their return to the pre-school. Parents praise the pre-school highly. They make comments such as, 'communication is fantastic and feedback unique', 'children have a wonderful experience and love attending', 'they are exposed to a wide range of activities' and 'make excellent progress'.