St Mark's Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and confident. They leave their parents at the door and enter with a smile. Children settle quickly and become absorbed in their play, showing that they feel safe and secure. They enjoy exploring activities that are based around their interests and build on what they already know and can do. Children form strong bonds with the staff, who are kind and caring in their approach. They seek them out for comfort, help and support.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress from their starting points. The special educational needs coordinator monitors children's needs. She works closely with external agencies, children's key person and parents to ensure they receive the support they need to enable them to make progress in their learning and development and achieve their full potential.

Staff have high expectations for children, especially with regards to their behaviour. Children are respectful to both adults and each other. They share, take turns and say 'please' and thank you'. Children start to manage their self-care and become independent. For example, they wash their hands before eating, serve their own fruits and vegetables and help dress themselves. Children learn about healthy eating through having discussions at mealtimes.

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

• Children's language and development are supported well. Staff sing and read stories with the children, encouraging them to discuss and share their ideas of what happens next. They repeat children's answers back to them, using the correct pronunciation, while keeping eye contact. Staff ask children relevant, open-ended questions. They introduce new words during conversations, such as 'sticky' while making dough. This helps to support children to become confident and capable communicators.
• Children enjoy a variety of opportunities to develop their physical skills. They use scissors to cut around pictures to stick on their artwork. Staff offer support to children who struggle. They praise children for their effort and achievements. Children enjoy the outdoor environment. They run around chasing each other, pushing tyres down the slope and use the climbing frame under the watchful eyes of staff, who support them to take risks. This helps children to become resilient and confident in their abilities.
• In general, staff interactions with children are good. Staff are attentive and responsive. However, at times, specifically during adult-led activities, staff do not consistently challenge older children in their learning. For example, while discussing oral health, the older children discuss the times they brush their teeth. However, this could have been extended further to discuss the importance and reasons for brushing their teeth.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents are happy with the progress their children make in their learning and development. They comment positively on the care their children receive. Parents receive regular updates about their children's learning and events at the pre-school. This is done through face-to-face meetings, emails and newsletters. Parents find the manager and staff approachable. They feel confident to approach the manager and staff about any concerns they might have.
• Children engage in routine mathematical activities independently. They count freely as they play. However, children's mathematical development could be enhanced further to build on their understanding of the relationship between measurements, numbers and quantity. For instance, while using the weighing scales, children count the bears as they add them to the scales. However, staff take over and add the numbers to the other side themselves, rather than explaining and allowing children to explore and investigate this themselves. This can impact on developing children's problem-solving skills and their further understanding of early mathematical concepts.
• The manager implements effective strategies. For example, she uses supervision sessions to evaluate workload and promote staff well-being. The manager offers effective one-to-one meetings that support staff to reflect on their practice and discuss any personal issues. The manager ensures that staff workload is appropriate and manageable. Staff comment that they feel confident approaching the manager and director with any issues or concerns, including about their workload.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend staff's skills to enable them to build on their interactions with older children, to further extend their learning
• develop a curriculum for mathematics and maximise opportunities to teach mathematical skills and concepts.