St Andrews Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy the time they spend at the warm, welcoming and inclusive pre-school. The highly effective and well-established key-person system supports children's emotional well-being and helps them to form secure attachments. Children show a positive attitude to learning and demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. They are keen to explore, investigate and take pride in their achievements. For example, when they develop new skills, they call to their key person to show them. Staff compliment children and provide lots of praise. These positive experiences help children develop a sense of achievement and an enthusiasm to learn.

Children make good progress from their starting points. Staff complete regular observations and assess their development effectively. This helps them to identify when children may need additional support. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well. Detailed meetings with parents and other professionals enable staff to share information about their care and learning needs. This enables them to provide children with the targeted support they need to succeed. Children successfully develop the skills they need for the future. For example, they complete tasks independently, show high levels of imagination, ask for help when needed and play harmoniously alongside their peers.

Children's communication and language skills are good. Staff model good speaking skills to ensure that children hear and understand the correct sentence structures. They ask children questions, check what they know, identify misconceptions and provide explanation. Children demonstrate a wide vocabulary and confidently engage in two-way conversations with staff and other children.

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

• Staff provide an abundance of opportunities to support children's literacy skills. Children have access to an excellent variety of fiction and non-fiction books and a vast range of writing materials. Children develop age-appropriate reading and writing skills. For example, younger children enjoy using paintbrushes and water to make marks and listen with interest to familiar stories. Older children, recognise their names, pretend to write during their play and accurately predict what will happen in stories.
• Overall, staff have a good understanding of how children learn and develop. Most of the time they teach in a way that supports children to develop knowledge and skills. For example, they use technology to show children pictures of 'old fashioned' telephones and explain to them how these operated. Children listen with interest, show curiosity and make links to the 'talking tubes' they used in the garden. However, although most staff adapt their teaching in response to children's interests, there are some instances where this does not occur. This means that during these activities, some children become restless and do not fully benefit from the intended learning.
• The curriculum provides children with a rich and diverse range of learning experiences. Children enjoy learning about different countries around the world. They learn about what makes them unique and explore the cultures and beliefs of others. This develops their understanding of similarity and difference and prepares them for life in modern Britain.
• Overall, children have a good understanding of why some behaviour rules are in place and the impact that their behaviour may have on others. Children are polite, kind and show high levels of respect and tolerance. However, rules, such as not running indoors are not consistently implemented, to help children to fully understand how to keep themselves safe.
• Staff support children's health and welfare well. Children have good opportunities to be physically active, regularly discuss the importance of making healthy food choices and follow robust hygiene practices. This helps children to develop an understanding of the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents report that the pre-school has given their children endless opportunities to develop their learning, as well as life skills. Staff provide parents with a range of resources, including games, 'story sacks' and books to help them to extend children's learning at home.
• Staff work well together as a dedicated team. They are reflective and committed to providing good quality care and education. Leaders regularly conduct staff supervisions, offering good support for staff's well-being. This contributes to high levels of staff morale.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to help them to recognise when to adapt the activities and the teaching in response to children's interests
• focus more on helping children to fully understand the rules and boundaries of the pre-school, particularly those that help children to keep themselves safe.