St Barnabas Pre-School (Sutton)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted with a warm welcome from the nurturing staff. Children are happy, settled and secure at this friendly and welcoming setting. They form close bonds with staff, who are caring, gentle and kind. Staff plan strong support for children's personal, social and emotional development. They encourage children to explore their emotions and express how they are feeling. As a result, children behave well and have a good attitude to learning. Staff organise the environment to help children build their physical skills well and access a wide range of resources that develop these skills. Children eagerly and confidently use wheeled toys and use their imagination as they climb apparatus that becomes a 'fire truck'.

There is also a strong emphasis on developing communication and language in the curriculum. Staff talk to children and share clear instructions and explanations during activities. For example, staff introduce mathematical language as children test the weights of natural resources. Staff are building the skills for children to be confident communicators, including children who speak English as an additional language.

The managers and staff have high expectations for every child, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those from a disadvantaged background. The curriculum is ambitious to ensure that every child reaches their full potential.

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

• Managers ensure that children have access to a wide curriculum offering exciting learning opportunities, both indoors and outdoors. Children's developmental starting points are established through discussions with parents and observations. Through understanding children's interests and needs, the staff ensure that children's learning is planned for effectively and is well sequenced.
• The special educational needs coordinator works well with staff to ensure children with SEND are supported in their development. Managers have ensured that children with SEND have the support they need. For example, children have regular interventions in the classroom and on a one-to-one basis, with targets set from other professionals working with them. As a result, children with SEND are making progress.
• Key-person systems are highly effective. Staff watch children closely to find out what they know and can do. They use their observations to plan activities that help children to make progress across their areas of learning.
• Staff promote children's communication well. They clearly narrate and emphasise words for children to copy and describe objects and actions for children as they play with them. Children learn to clearly pronounce new words.
• They enjoy listening to and joining in familiar stories. Older children have a word bank of new words to learn to enhance their vocabulary.
• Overall, staff deploy themselves effectively and interact with children well, such as modelling a broad vocabulary to provide good-quality teaching. However, at times, staff are not aware of where best to support children to enhance their learning further. Therefore, children become distracted and less focused on their learning.
• Children are provided with ample opportunities to be physically active and have daily access to the well-resourced garden. Children engage in a range of activities that promote their communication and language when outdoors. Following recent monitoring of the outdoor space, staff have redesigned this area effectively to ensure that children have a wide range of activities to enjoy, supporting all areas of learning.
• Staff support children to develop healthy lifestyles. Following a recent initiative, the pre-school has been accredited with an award for being healthy in the early years. Staff support children to access a local dentist and help parents to understand the importance of good oral health.
• Partnership with parents is very good. Parents are extremely positive in their feedback about the pre-school. They praise staff as being very supportive in guiding their children and the progress they make. They compliment managers and staff in their support for the whole family.
• The managers are dedicated and committed. They have a clear and ambitious vision for the pre-school, which is shared with the staff. They are reflective and seek to continually improve the pre-school and make enhancements where necessary.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to have more awareness of how best to support children to enhance their learning even further.