St Peter & St Paul Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children's positive behaviour and attitudes contribute to making this setting warm and friendly. Staff shape children's character by reinforcing important values, for example being kind. This is seen as children help their friends throughout the day. At lunch, children politely say to staff, 'Excuse me, he hasn't got any water to drink, can he have some please?' Children show that they are happy through the secure relationships that they make with staff and their friends.

Children enjoy time spent learning outside. Staff consider what children need to learn as part of their overall development, and how this can be extended in the garden. Some children gather around weighing scales and investigate how they work. They develop their mathematical knowledge about what is light and what is heavy. They explore with a member of staff and sort dried pasta, feathers, and puzzle pieces into groups based on their weight. Other children sit with a member of staff and use princess puppets to act out a fairy tale story. They recall their knowledge about the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, remembering that she lives at Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, another group of children develop their early writing skills as they safely use paint brushes and water to draw shapes on paving stones.

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

• Staff use their recent training to enhance learning opportunities for children. Small-group times are arranged throughout the morning, to support children's progress through the levels of a communication and language programme. Younger children develop their listening and attention skills during an exciting game where they must guess a hidden object from the sound that it makes. Older children's development is extended as they learn about different sounds in words. This will help these children get ready for their future learning at school.
• The manager has carefully considered how to best spend additional funding to benefit children. Following children's interest about insects, staff and children have been nurturing caterpillars into butterflies. This develops children's understanding of the world. Children show great excitement as the day arrives when the butterflies are released from their net into the world. They watch as the butterflies flutter between plants in the garden and then off into the air.
• Staff maintain strong partnerships with parents. Parents speak highly of the relationships that they have with the manager and staff. Staff share ideas about how parents can extend their children's learning at home. To help parents know exactly how activity ideas work, staff explain through using photos as well as written descriptions. Parents say that this information helps them support their child's development.
• The manager has recently added a lunch session as part of the setting's provision. This enables children to stay all day and extend the duration of their early education. Overall, children are benefiting from this. For example, they can develop their social skills through the experience of having lunch with their friends. However, on occasion at times of transition, staff are unable to quickly respond and extend children's learning because they are involved in other routine activities.
• Staff recognise and respond appropriately to children who need extra emotional support following times of absence from the setting. Children receive support from caring and attentive staff. They make sure that quieter children are encouraged to join in with their friends. However, at times staff do not support these children to manage their own conflicts. For example, when children take toys from their friends, staff retrieve the toy rather than helping children to confidently navigate this interaction themselves.
• Staff give children opportunities to learn about information technology. They show children that they can find facts and information from the internet on the computer. Children access educational games on handheld devices. This is helping children develop skills to use in the modern world. However, staff have not yet considered how to teach children about keeping safe when using the internet.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to further support children to develop their social skills, so that they can confidently engage play experiences alongside their peers
• adapt the organisation of transitions and routine activity times, so that children's learning and development is maintained throughout
• develop learning opportunities for children to recognise when they might be at risk when accessing the internet and what they can do to keep safe when using technology.