St James Church Pre-School CIO

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy spending time in this warm and welcoming pre-school. They settle well and display good levels of emotional well-being as they play harmoniously with their friends. Staff have a good understanding of the children in their care. They invest time in getting to know them before they start attending. This helps to build trusting relationships so that children feel safe and secure.

Outside play and experiences are an important part of the day for all children. Staff make effective use of the garden to provide children with a range of play experiences, based on their current interests. Children delight in exploring for insects in the garden and eagerly show staff the frog and centipede they find. They demonstrate great skills in balance and coordination as they balance along logs and use climbing apparatus with confidence.

Children have a positive attitude to learning and consistently behave well. Staff encourage children to work together during learning experiences to form friendships and further build on their personal, social and emotional development. Children are kind and respectful towards one another from a young age. They actively share resources and demonstrate that they understand rules and boundaries at this inclusive pre-school.

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

• All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, develop knowledge and skills across all areas of the curriculum. Leaders have established good links with other professionals involved in children's care, including speech and language therapists. They follow their lead to ensure continuity in children's learning. As a result, children with speech and language delay are quickly catching up.
• Overall, teaching is good. However, at times, staff knowledge of what they want children to learn is less well explored. Consequently, teaching is not always tailored to support what children need to know or learn next as fully as possible.
• Children show a positive attitude to learning. They are motivated and demonstrate critical thinking skills. For instance, as they build a tower using different-sized bricks, they carefully consider how to do this. After several failed attempts they discover that they need to put the larger blocks at the bottom. These experiences help children to develop a 'can-do' attitude and recognise when a change in strategy may be needed.
• The manager and staff support children's communication and language skills effectively. They encourage more-confident children to engage in back-and-forth conversations, showing genuine interest in what they have to say. Staff introduce new words and repeat words back to children, so they hear the correct pronunciation. However, during group activities, staff do not always recognise when the younger and less confident children need support to join in.
• Children benefit from many opportunities to learn about their wider world, including where their food comes from. For instance, they plant seeds and discuss what they need to grow. Children know that seeds need soil, water and sunshine. They eagerly talk about the vegetables they have grown in the garden, including recently shelling and eating peas.
• The staff promote children's independence well. They teach children to manage self-help tasks for themselves. For example, children put on their shoes, hang their coats on their named pegs, cut up their own fruit and feed themselves at mealtimes. Children develop knowledge of good hygiene routines. For example, they know they must wash their hands before eating.
• Parent partnerships are good. Parents speak highly about the staff and comment that their children enjoy the time they spend at the pre-school. Effective communication, including electronic and verbal feedback, ensures that parents are fully aware of the activities provided and the progress their children make.
• Robust recruitment procedures are in place to ensure that staff working directly with children are suitable. However, members of the management committee do not have a secure knowledge and understanding of their roles and responsibilities. They have failed to inform Ofsted of changes to committee members. As a result, Ofsted has not been provided with the information required to check the suitability of all committee members. However, action has been taken by leaders to rectify this.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to implement the precise learning intentions of activities more effectively so that they are clear about what skills and knowledge they want children to gain
• recognise when the quiet and less confident children need help to engage in more purposeful play and learning.