St Nicholas Church Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle easily at the pre-school and they develop close attachments with their key person. Children show very keen interest in the resources and they move around freely to play. For example, they spend a long time exploring with dinosaurs, animals and other small-world resources. Children learn to recall and connect their past experiences with their new learning. They listen attentively and respond to simple questions. Children demonstrate a good understanding and they follow simple instructions well. Individual children with gaps in their speech and language development receive support to help them to express their needs and interests.

Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Staff encourage children to play appropriately with other children, and make them aware of the consequences of their actions. During outdoor physical activities, children demonstrate good coordination, movement and balance as they use the see-saw and climbing frame. Staff encourage children to take on manageable risks and new challenges that help to build their confidence, resilience and perseverance. Staff provide small tasks for children to do on their own, in order to develop their independence. At snack time, staff provide fruits for children to eat and they use the opportunity to teach them about healthy eating.

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

• Staff observe and assess children's learning effectively. They share this information with parents and work together to plan the next stages in children's learning. This helps children to make good progress with their learning and development in relation to their starting points.
• Staff make very good use of children's play to support their communication and language development. They use simple words, short sentences, body language and visual aids to support children's understanding, listening and speaking skills.
• The special educational needs coordinator implements one-to-one sessions with individual children to help to close gaps identified in their speech, language and communication development. She works closely with the child's key person and parents to ensure that there is consistency and ongoing support in place for the child.
• Staff support children to develop their literacy skills well. For example, they link stories to different activities to expand on children's learning. Staff provide mark-making activities to develop children's early writing skills.
• Staff provide good opportunities for children to keep active and to develop their physical skills. Children learn to grasp and handle different resources effectively. They take part in activities using whole-body movements and this help to develop their larger muscles.
• Children display high levels of confidence and independence while choosing their play, washing their hands and feeding themselves. Staff support them to become self-aware, know their own likes and dislikes, and recognise a picture of themselves and their written name.
• Children engage in different food activities to support their understanding of healthy eating. For example, staff teach them how to make a wrap and fruit kebab to eat. During warm weather, they plant fruits and vegetables.
• Staff promote positive behaviour at the pre-school effectively. For example, they act as good role models to children. Staff set clear boundaries for children so that they know the expectations from them, and they clearly explain right from wrong.
• Staff form close working partnerships with parents. For example, staff invite parents to events at the pre-school and they encourage their involvement in their children's learning. Parents feed back positively about the support that staff offer to children. They say that staff make each child feel welcome and meet their needs well.
• Leaders work closely with the team to continuously evaluate the pre-school. They are clear about their strengths and areas for development. Leaders use supervision meetings to discuss staff's well-being, workload and professional development needs.
• Staff identify that children require further support to develop their mathematics skills. However, they do not plan well enough to incorporate these skills during their play and everyday experiences to encourage children to count and recognise numbers.
• Staff do not consistently provide opportunities for children to develop their awareness of the similarities and differences between people, including their religious and cultural communities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make better use of children's play and routine tasks to help strengthen their mathematics skills further
• increase opportunities for children to develop an awareness of the role, religion and culture of different people in the community.