St Matthias Pre-School & Childcare Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive eager to play with their friends. They learn in a home-from-home environment where they feel safe and secure. There is an effective key-person system. Children benefit from warm, trusting relationships with staff who know them well. Staff ensure that there are exciting opportunities for learning based on children's stages of development. They encourage children to take managed risks in the well-equipped outdoor learning area. Children demonstrate particularly good physical skills. They confidently jump from one log to another and pull themselves up onto swings made from tyres. Staff support children as they learn to climb on low-level branches and climb up and down a wooden ramp into a tree house. Children demonstrate very good levels of perseverance for their ages.

Staff provide children with a varied and progressive curriculum. They carefully consider what children know and need to know next. Children demonstrate particularly good skills in mathematics, confidently counting and recognising shapes. Staff have high expectations of what children can do for themselves. They support them to become more independent over time. For instance, they patiently teach children how to put on their own coats. Staff have a shared understanding of how they intend to build on children's knowledge and provide a consistent approach to their learning.

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

• Staff provide a range of rich experiences for children. For example, they organise visits to a care home where children take part in activities with the residents, including a recent harvest festival celebration. Staff help children to learn about diversity and promote a sense of community with the children. They also work closely alongside the members of the local church, such as, to provide opportunities for children to find out about the stories in the Bible.
• Staff promote a love of reading very well. They carefully chose good-quality books that develop children's understanding in different areas of the curriculum, such as mathematics. Children join in as staff enthusiastically read to them. For instance, they delight as they pretend to be the birds in a story by waddling their legs and flapping their arms alongside staff.
• Staff plan for group activities to help develop children's knowledge and skills over time. However, while staff usually present information clearly, they do not regularly check children's understanding to ensure that they know what they should be doing. At these times, activities become less meaningful, and children do not always complete the intended task.
• Staff identify children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively. They work closely in partnership with parents and other professionals to provide children with targeted support linked to their individual needs. Staff consider when children need additional support with the transition to school and forge good links with local schools to aid this process.
• Staff support children who learn English as an additional language well. They provide effective help through their 'languages champion' initiative, which promotes the inclusion of different languages being spoken and understood across the setting. For example, staff learn nursery rhymes in children's home languages and sing these to children throughout the day.
• Children are inquisitive. Staff build well on children's curiosity and develop their understanding of the world around them. For instance, children delight as they find worms under logs in the outdoor area. Staff help them to carefully hold them in their hands and then place them back on the ground. Children demonstrate great care and respect for the environment.
• Children are keen to learn. They listen intently to staff and respond positively to them. However, on occasion, staff do not notice when the quieter, less-confident children are not joining in with activities. They do not always intervene quickly to support these children to engage fully in the activities on offer.
• Staff are knowledgeable and passionate about their roles. With leaders, they regularly assess the impact of their work on children's learning and have a clear vision on how to strengthen their offer to children. They take part in regular supervision and training linked to key priorities. Staff work very well alongside each other to provide inclusive care and education to the children in the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build in frequent opportunities during activities for staff to check children's understanding so they benefit fully from taking part in the learning task
• target support more effectively to quieter, less-confident children to help increase their confidence and engagement, particularly during group activities.