St George's Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted by the nurturing staff and are eager to start their day at the pre-school. They quickly settle in the well-planned environment that is set up to meet the needs and interests of the children as they arrive. Children develop strong bonds and secure attachments with the caring staff.

Staff are positive role models, and children giggle with delight as they join their play. For example, when children explore the hairdressers, they invite staff to be their customers, brushing their hair and saying, 'Let's go blonde,' before pretending to mix colours and apply to hair. Staff allow children to take the lead in their learning, and suggest ideas to extend their thinking. Children show resilience as they keep trying to learn new skills, such as climbing on the new climbing frame, turning at the top before using the rope ladder to climb down.

Children enjoy their time outside. The regular access to outside meets the needs of the children, particularly children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), who relish having the freedom to be physically active. Children demonstrate good physical ability, as they jump up and down on a bouncer and explore digging in the sand pit. Staff teach children to take appropriate risks and challenges as they play, building their confidence and self-esteem.

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

• The manager is committed to providing the best possible care and education for all children. She leads a well-qualified team, who shares her vision. The manager is dedicated to continuous improvement and has a clear understanding of the pre-school's strengths and areas for development. They have made successful improvements to the outdoor area to provide children with exciting and challenging learning experiences.
• Together the staff team and leaders have devised a broad and balanced curriculum. It builds on children's current knowledge and is closely linked to the learning needs and interests of the children.
• Staff observe children closely to find out what they know and can do. They plan activities to follow children's interests and support the next phase in their development. However, some next steps are not precise enough to ensure rapid progress for all children.
• Communication and language development is a high priority. Staff ensure children hear a rich variety of vocabulary to strengthen their language skills. For example, they encourage the children to talk about the story as they share it. Staff use repetition effectively, repeating new words clearly, and encourage them to join in with songs and rhymes.
• Children enjoy the freedom to explore the environment and choose where and what they would like to play with. Staff are well deployed to meet the needs of the children during free play.
• Staff effectively support children with SEND. They develop good relationships with parents to promote consistency in their learning. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) regularly meets with other professionals to share information and provide targeted support for children with SEND to help them to make the best possible progress from their starting points.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are effective. Parents feed back that staff offer a wide range of information about their children. They praise the online journals where staff share observations and photos. These enable parents to build on their children's learning at home. Parents praise the 'family feel' of the setting.
• Leaders work alongside their team. They constantly observe the quality of teaching delivered. Staff feel well supported to extend their knowledge in order to support children in their care. Leaders are aware of the demands on the staff and ensure that they have time to complete paperwork. This supports staff's well-being.
• Children are exposed to early maths vocabulary during everyday activities, for example counting the number of animals during an activity, naming the shapes in their story pictures and comparing who has more toys. Children confidently use mathematical language in their play.
• Staff provide healthy snacks for the children to access independently. Children help themselves to water throughout the day. A member of staff sits with the children as they eat their snacks and engages children in meaningful discussions.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine the use of next steps so that they are more precisely tailored to support children's individual learning needs.