St Lawrence Pre-school (North Wingfield)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff encourage all children to be independent. Children readily peel oranges and bananas at snack time, pour drinks and put their rubbish in the bin. Staff ensure children have ample time to prepare for changes in the daily routine. This helps children recognise when it is time to put on their coats for outdoor play and get their lunch boxes from the trolley at mealtimes. Staff notice when children are struggling and provide praise to motivate them to persevere. This supports children to do as much for themselves as possible.

Children enjoy outdoor play. Staff help children create a track to ride their bikes around. Children show agility and confidence as they push themselves along while safely navigating the track. Staff enhance children's play by developing a traffic light system from coloured cones. Children learn that green means go and red means stop. When staff need to support other activities, children volunteer to hold the cones for their friends, enabling the game to continue. Staff supervise children as they take turns walking carefully along balance beams or jumping from crates. Children gather armfuls of fallen leaves, which they throw in the air. Staff show children how to bend and stretch to get the leaves higher. Children giggle as leaves gently fall onto them and their friends. This strengthens children's muscles and helps develop their coordination skills.

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

• Managers conduct home visits to meet children and their families before children start at the pre-school. This enables information to be gathered, which helps managers and staff understand children's needs. This information helps staff to help children transition into the pre-school with ease. Staff identify appropriate next steps in learning for children, which they embed in their play. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff provide home-learning activities to enable children to continue learning at home. This means all children make good progress from their starting points.
• Parents are positive about the care their children receive. They appreciate that staff ensure early help is in place for children who require additional support. Parents state this has positively impacted their children's speech and language development. They say communication from staff is good, and they value the time their children get to take part in outdoor activities. Parents feel their children are well prepared for school.
• Staff provide activities to strengthen children's small muscles. This helps children develop the skills they need for early writing. Children use their hands to squash and squeeze dough to make long rolls. Staff model how to manipulate the dough to make shapes, which children readily copy. Children use brushes to paint vegetables, which they stamp on paper to make colourful prints. Staff talk to children about the vegetables cut in half, comparing them to those that are whole. This supports children's growing mathematical knowledge.
• In general, children behave well. Staff encourage children to help tidy away, play safely with equipment and use good manners. However, there are inconsistencies in staff practice. For example, when some staff ask children to stop certain behaviours, they do not explain why. Children ignore staff and carry on with inappropriate action. This does not help children to learn the impact that their behaviour has on others.
• Staff ensure children have healthy meals and access to fresh drinking water. Children are reminded to wash their hands after toileting and before eating. This helps children establish good hygiene practices. Staff encourage children to recall previous learning and identify what healthy foods they have in their lunch boxes. Children are eager to show staff the fruits and vegetables they eat.
• Overall, staff ensure the indoor environment is planned and organised in a way which supports children to have their individual needs met. However, staff do not always recognise when small-group or one-to-one work would benefit from quieter spaces. The high noise levels impact some children's ability to listen and concentrate on tasks. This results in children losing focus and disengaging from activities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop effective behaviour management strategies which provide a consistent approach to better support children's understanding of positive behaviour
• organise the environment, with particular reference to small-group and one-to-one work, to ensure that children are able to fully engage and do not have their learning disrupted.