St Andrew's Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the setting happy and eager to learn. They relish a challenge and persevere well on tasks. Staff know the children well and understand their capabilities, continuously building on their knowledge and skills.

When children returned to the setting, following time off during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, staff were quick to identify areas of focus and shape the curriculum accordingly. They prioritised children's emotional well-being and planned activities that allowed children to talk about how they were feeling. For example, staff encouraged children to talk about how they were feeling using food colourings to represent different emotions. They then mixed these together in water to show that sometimes we feel different emotions all at once and this can be overwhelming.

Children are encouraged to develop an early appreciation and love of books. Each week, children chose a book to take home and read. Before choosing another, they talk about the book they have read and what they enjoyed about it. They retell the story in their own words, talking about the main characters and recalling the key events.

Staff deployment is effective in ensuring children are safely supervised. Children behave well. They learn about responsibility and develop their independence during daily routines. They cooperate well on tasks, help one another and look after their environment as they help to tidy away the toys.

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

• Staff have an in-depth knowledge of children's capabilities. They are skilled at knowing when to intervene to add to the child's learning experience and when to allow them to try out their own ideas during planned activities.
• The staff team reflects on their practice well, ensuring the curriculum continues to challenge children and build on their knowledge and skills. However, at times, during less structured times of the day, staff are not always alert to those children who are less engaged in purposeful play.
• Children are actively encouraged to share their ideas and contribute to the self-evaluation process. Just one of the ways this is done is through the children's committee. Children put forward their ideas and suggestions, such as requests for further resources such as a remote-control robot and why they feel it is needed. They talk about the quality of the snack and healthy eating and their ideas are valued by staff and acted upon. Staff encourage children to share any concerns and talk through their worries about starting school. This leads to a conversation about what to expect. This approach helps to build children's confidence, speaking and listening skills.
• Staff encourage children to learn about healthy living during planned activities. After reading 'Jack and the Beanstalk', children went on to grow their own fruit and vegetables in the outdoor area. Staff supported children to learn how to care for the plants, to help them grow, and harvested them when ready. They used tools safely to chop and prepare the vegetables to cook a healthy soup, which they enjoyed for their lunch and took home to their families.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported to reach their full potential and staff work closely with any professionals involved to provide appropriate levels of challenge. Any funding is used to well to ensure it helps children to make good progress. For example, staff buy appropriate resources to help children develop and practise key skills identified in their individual plans.
• There is a strong emphasis on continuous professional development, in terms of identifying training that will ultimately improve outcomes for children. Staff have regular supervisions and appraisals and they work well together to evaluate practice. However, the manager does not always critically evaluate teaching practice to identify areas that could be further improved.
• Staff work effectively in partnership with parents. They find out about children's starting points and complete a baseline assessment when they first start to be able to plan their next steps in learning. This allows them to build on children's prior knowledge and skills and identify any gaps in learning.
• Parents report how well their children are supported. They talk of their achievements and the new skills they have acquired, particularly around gaining increasing independence and their speech and language. Parents value the ongoing feedback they receive from staff about how their children are progressing and how they can support them in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the quality of learning experiences for children during less structured times of the day to ensure that they remain engaged in purposeful play
• improve evaluations of teaching practice so that areas for further improvement are consistently identified.