Thamesview Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The team in this small pre-school prides itself on being completely dedicated to providing the highest level of care for children. As such, children are very happy and secure. They have strong bonds with staff and display a firm sense of belonging. Staff carefully plan a curriculum that closely follows children's individual interests. From this, children are confident and curious in their play and learning. Staff help children to learn about their immediate community and the wider world around them. For example, children benefit from visits to the setting from police and paramedics to build on their early awareness of people who help us.

Children behave well. Staff help them to gain the skills they require to work with others and manage their own emotions. Staff are effective role models who help children to use impeccable manners, learn about making 'happy choices' and know they are respected for their own personalities. Children have lots of freedom to explore both indoors and outdoors. They are managing simple risks in their play as they navigate the steps into the garden area and investigate in the mud kitchen with herbs and search for bugs with magnifying glasses. This helps children to have access to fresh air and to increase their physical skills.

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

• Children make good progress. Staff carefully watch their development and plan appropriate next steps to help children to succeed, including children who are in receipt of additional funding. Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are closely observed to quickly identify additional help that may be required. Staff regularly share important information with other professionals to ensure that children have a joined-up approach to support their future progress.
• Children explore with numbers, shapes and colours as an early introduction to mathematics. They build tall towers and carefully add more bricks to see how high they can make them before they fall over. Staff extend this further as they help children to measure the height of the tower with a tape measure. Children are learning about mathematical language as they correctly use terms, such as 'on top', as they build together.
• Leaders fully support staff to remain motivated towards their roles. They have regular supervision meetings and training opportunities. For instance, staff regularly attend safeguarding training to help them to protect the children in their care to the best of their abilities. A recent training course has helped staff to continue to build imperative partnerships with parents. The setting fully involves parents in regular discussions about their children's progress and how they can help their children to continue to learn when at home.
• Children are learning about making healthy choices to promote their health and well-being. For instance, they enjoy trips to the allotment to learn about how fruit and vegetables grow. Staff help children to build higher levels of understanding and caring towards others. They join staff in delivering food parcels to local food banks in the area. Children are very independent in their own self-care skills. They help to cut up fruit for snack time, pour their own drinks and can dress themselves for outdoor play.
• Children are developing good communication and language skills. Staff enjoy reading stories chosen by the children, and this helps them to build a love of books. Children enjoy circle time together and become excited as they sing songs linked to actions. Staff introduce lots of new words and ask children many questions to build on their range of vocabulary. However, they do not consistently provide children with the time required to answer with their own suggestions or ideas to build on their learning further.
• Staff plan exciting activities that help children to explore with their imaginations and build on their coordination skills. For instance, children investigate with different textures and sensations as they touch foam and use different tools to try to break the toy dinosaurs out of the frozen ice. Children copy patterns and make marks in drawings and on clipboards outdoors, which helps them to build early literacy skills and abilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to recognise when to give children enough time to answer questions to fully promote their thinking skills and extend their learning.