St Peters Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly greet the children and parents as they arrive. They take time to ensure both children and parents are well. Children who are upset are gently comforted and reassured. Staff ask parents why children are upset, if needed, to ensure they have all the necessary information to effectively support children and help them enjoy their time at the pre-school. Staff are kind, patient and nurturing. The key-person system is effective. Children spend time with staff and build secure relationships. This helps staff get to know the children well. Staff carefully and successfully meet children's individual needs.

Children's behaviour is good. They understand staff's clear communication and expectations. Children form positive friendships with peers and play cooperatively with each other. They respond well to the routines and boundaries in place. Children respond well to praise from staff for their efforts, achievements and perseverance. This enhances their self-esteem and confidence.

Staff identify clear curriculum foci to support children's communication and language and personal, social and emotional development. This helps to promote children's ability to share and take turns. Their listening, understanding and speaking skills are developing well. Staff provide lots of support with books, songs and small group discussions, such as circle time, which effectively benefit children's learning.

Staff provide lots of opportunities for children to develop their physical skills. They support children to ride tricycles and move around with ease. Children gain good body control and learn to be aware of others in the environment. They develop skills to be safe around others and are learning to identify and manage risks.

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

• The staff know what individual children can do and carefully focus on what they need to learn next. Next steps include supporting children's ability to interact with each other, to be kind and to promote their listening and speaking skills further. Staff are very attentive. They interact and engage very well with children during their play and exploration. Staff use pictures to explain routines and lots of eye contact to help support children who are learning English as an additional language. Staff introduce new vocabulary, ask questions and give children time to think and respond. Children make good progress and learn skills for future learning and eventually school.
• Staff provide a range of learning experiences for children. They use observations, information from parents, children's interests and choices to plan appropriate activities to support children's learning. Staff monitor children's progress, identify any gaps in development and next steps in learning. Staff are very knowledgeable and skilled in their ability to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They attend training and work very closely with parents and other professionals to ensure the needs of children are effectively supported.
• Children develop a love of books. They enjoy a wide selection of stories. Staff encourage children to choose books independently. For example, children with SEND can be seen cuddling up close to staff as they listen to them read and help to turn the pages.
• Staff support children's independence well. For instance, children enjoy making choices about their play, based on their interests. They learn to put on their own coats, ready to go out in the garden. However, staff do not always ensure that all children wash their hands before placing them in the bowl to pick up chopped fruits. This does not consistently promote children's health and well-being.
• Staff provide a selection of opportunities to support children's mathematical knowledge and skills. However, these are not consistently used to enhance children's understanding of mathematical concepts, such as numbers and shapes.
• Staff teach children about nature, such as changes in the seasons, to help them understand the world around them. For instance, they talk about the weather, colours changing on the trees and different cultural festivals and events such as harvest.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents are extremely happy with the care their children receive. They share that staff show kindness, care and attentiveness to parents to ensure the needs of children are effectively met. Parents praise the continuous communication, and the support staff give to help children progress at home.
• Staff have an ambitious vision for the pre-school. They evaluate the quality of the provision effectively and identify strengths and weaknesses in practice. Staff say they are happy and feel that they are well supported in their roles.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review snack-time routine to ensure systems in place enhance healthy practice to support children's good health
• use opportunities more effectively to implement numbers and shapes in activities to help enhance children's concepts of mathematics.