Stoughton Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, settled and confident at the pre-school. They confidently leave parents and enter their rooms, which shows that children feel safe and secure within their environment. Once inside, children become deeply engaged and enthusiastic in their play. The activities planned by staff are based on children's interests. For example, the youngest children can choose to explore an Arctic scene in the play tray with shaving foam and polar bears or go hunting for dinosaurs in the sand tray. Outdoors, children skilfully balance and change direction on wooden planks and develop their physical skills as they jump safely off the wall with staff supporting them.

Children establish close relationships with their key person. For instance, the younger children find their key person when they require cuddles before their nap times. This supports their well-being. Children's behaviour is good. They happily include each other in their play and are very polite at mealtimes.

Children have a great time at pre-school. They show continuous levels of concentration and engagement at activities. There are ample opportunities to learn about the world around them and the community in which they live. For example, the children thoroughly enjoy caring for 'Timmy the tortoise'. They learn how to bathe him, checking the temperature of the water before they prepare his breakfast, carefully cutting tomatoes and cucumber. Children confidently make comparisons between their meals and the food Timmy eats.

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

• Staff offer constant praise, encouragement and reassurance as children play. They get down to the children's level and talk calmly as they reinforce turn-taking and playing cooperatively together. Staff's kind and nurturing approach supports children in timely and effective ways to enhance their well-being. They know the children very well and are incredibly sensitive to children's emotional needs.
• Staff observe and monitor children's progress accurately. They have a good understanding of children's level of development and individual needs. Where appropriate, staff undertake prompt referrals to specialist services and other professionals. As a result, all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive the right level of support to reach their full potential.
• Children concentrate and pay close attention when listening to stories. They enjoy being able to vote for their daily story of choice at registration. Children confidently recall familiar stories to visitors, such as 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', and show excitement as they mix porridge with water and milk. They benefit from a wide range of stories, magazines and newspapers in the comfy reading area.
• Staff use what they know about children to plan a wide range of activities that support children to develop new skills and knowledge. However, children are not always given opportunities to explore their ideas and experiment for themselves. For example, when children are working with adults, they are given limited resources. For instance, when making Christmas wreaths, staff provide ready-mixed green paint. This limits children's independence and their ability to make choices.
• Parents could not praise the staff any higher. Several comment on how lucky they feel to have found this pre-school. They value the flexibility it gives them in their working lives and the support they are given to continue their children's learning and development at home. Parents praise the staff team and comment on how much their children enjoy attending the pre-school. They appreciate how well the staff keep them informed, for example during parents' evenings.
• Routine activities enable children to develop and enhance their counting skills. They recite counting songs and rhymes as they go about their play. However, children's mathematical learning could be explored further by providing activities to support and extend the children's knowledge of shape, space and measures.
• The manager monitors children's progress. This helps her to identify any gaps in their learning. She provides swift intervention when children need extra help, such as small-group sessions and one-to-one support, to help children catch up with their peers. The manager works with other professionals, such as speech and language therapists, to put in place targeted support to help close gaps in children's development. Activities are sensitively adapted to ensure inclusion.
• The manager places a strong focus on supporting staff in their professional development. She ensures that all staff have access to ongoing training to develop their knowledge and skills. The manager is passionate, knowledgeable and ambitious.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve the opportunities for children to explore and discover, to support them to become independent learners
• strengthen the support for children to further develop their understanding of mathematics, with particular reference to shape, space and measure.