St Albans Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the pre-school happy and demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. They confidently find their names on the self-registration board and are keen to explore the activities. They have positive relationships with others. Children play cooperatively alongside their friends and are well supported by the caring staff team.

Staff engage children in a varied range of activities to support their learning. This helps them to make good progress from their starting points. Children's interests and ideas inform the curriculum planning. They also learn new things and mathematical concepts through topic work. For example, they learn about growth when planting sunflowers and talk about which one is the tallest. Children spontaneously use mathematical language in their play as they count and compare shape and size.

Children behave well and are supported to manage their feelings. Staff encourage kind and respectful behaviour. Children understand routines, such as helping with tidying up the toys. During circle time, they are supported to listen to others when sharing views and opinions.

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

• Since the last inspection, leaders and managers have reflected and taken positive steps to address previous actions. They have effective systems to evaluate the pre-school to improve outcomes for children. All children now make good progress in their learning.
• There are secure arrangements to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff understand the importance of working closely with parents to offer a consistent approach. Staff seek support and guidance from other agencies to ensure that children's needs are supported in the pre-school.
• Children develop a love for books and stories. They enjoy both group story sessions and individual stories in the outdoor reading area. They snuggle up to staff to share favourite books and anticipate what is going to happen next.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents are very happy with the care received by their children and say they have seen their children make secure progress in their learning. Parents find the staff team friendly, supportive and committed. They receive regular feedback about their child's development through daily discussions and planned meetings. Parents enjoy listening to their children sing songs that they have learned at pre-school.
• Children have free-flow access into the outdoor play area. They explore the water play where they transfer water between containers with skill. They use balls and wheeled toys, demonstrating good coordination. However, there is a lack of challenging opportunities to develop the most able children's physical skills in a variety of ways.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language skills well. For example, they reinforce key words and use pictorial prompts to support understanding of routines. Staff introduce new language such as 'stethoscope' during the doctors role-play activity. However, occasionally, staff miss opportunities to help children to expand on their ideas or use more complex sentences.
• Staff encourage children to learn skills for the future and complete tasks on their own. They pour their own drinks at snack time and cut up their own fruit. Children learn about nutrition, and parents are provided with useful guidance about healthy eating lunch box swaps.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop consistency in staff's teaching of communication and language, to provide more opportunities for children to build their language and thinking skills
• review the outdoor learning environment to provide more challenging opportunities for the most able children to develop their physical skills.