St Pauls Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at pre-school. They settle quickly and develop positive relationships with their key workers, displaying that they feel safe and secure. Children are well supported with their learning as age-appropriate activities, based on children's interests, are provided. The learning environment enables children to access equipment freely, supporting independence and choice-making. Staff enhance children's knowledge through their interactions in play. For example, staff support children to learn new words as they role play in the shop. Children enthusiastically explore the items for sale. They count and 'pay' for their shopping items, learning mathematical concepts.

Children behave very well and are eager to learn. Staff use consistent approaches to ensure that behaviour is managed effectively. They help children to understand about taking turns through fun and exciting games. Children follow instructions well and help with clearing away, including taking it in turns to be a helping monitor. The ambitious curriculum to support children's understanding of the world is a strength of the pre-school. Children learn about caring for each other and the wider world as they explore how rubbish impacts the environment, especially sea animals.

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

• Parents speak very highly of the setting and value staff's feedback about their child's development and progress. Parents are encouraged to be involved in their children's learning, for instance through regular communication via home-learning activities, questionnaires and parents' evenings.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are given a very good start to their early education, and they make very good progress. Recent staff professional development opportunities, such as special educational needs training, have greatly benefited the provision for children's understanding and language development. Children that struggle to communicate learn about what is happening during the day and to express themselves using picture symbol cards. This helps to reassure the children, ensuring they are heard and have their needs met.
• Staff provide engaging opportunities for children to mark make and develop early writing skills. Children learn how to use scissors to practise their cutting skills and use glue in their artwork, developing their physical skills. However, older children are not always supported to solve their own problems. For example, children are not encouraged to explore different ways to join materials together when their chosen resources are not working effectively.
• Staff provide children with fun, interactive stories and make the best use of space through providing adult-focused group work. This supports children's turn- taking and concentration skills and enables them to get the maximum benefit from the activity on offer.
• Children go on regular outings in the local community as part of the curriculum. When children developed an interest in sea animals, they visited the local aquarium by boat on the River Thames. These trips help children to gain an excellent understanding of the environment and the wider world.
• Staff ensure that children spend time outdoors. Children know the routine and quickly get ready to line up to go outside. Children are developing an interest in nature and are learning to grow their own vegetables. They learn to care for them as they water and watch them grow. They explore the different insects and talk about the changes that occur as their plants sprout and get bigger.
• Children learn about traditions, events and celebrations that are different than their own. They access positive cultural images in books and learn to value the differences and similarities. For instance, they enjoy regular visits from a parent who comes in to teach nursery rhymes from Nigeria. Children gain a good understanding of the wider world.
• Staff promote children's confidence and independence well. For example, children show good levels of independence as they use the toilet and independently wash their hands. Children make good attempts to put on their own shoes and coats and clear away at lunchtime.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to build on the already good teaching and provide older children with opportunities to problem-solve and find solutions to the challenges they may encounter.