The Peaks

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle well and enjoy their time at this pre-school. They are provided with a well-embedded curriculum that has a strong focus on helping children to be ready for school. The pre-school is uniquely located within a primary school. Children benefit from this because they have many opportunities to learn about the routines and expectations of the school day. For instance, staff have high expectations as new and existing children join the school for morning assembly. Children are fully engaged. They eagerly participate as they sing along with the school-aged children.

Children develop their independence skills well. For instance, they wash their hands without the support of the staff. During snack time, children butter their own toast and make their own food choices from a selection of nutritious food. After lunch, children proudly and carefully take their food tray back to the serving table in the school hall. They happily skip back to join their friends in readiness to start their play.

Children have good opportunities to develop their small-muscle and hand-to-eye coordination skills. For example, they practise their pincer grip as they hold paintbrushes to paint rainbows on paper. Children manipulate play dough as they mould it to create a snowman.

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

• Staff help children learn about the rules and expectations of the pre-school. They encourage children to use 'walking feet' and 'listening ears'. Staff prepare children for routine changes. For instance, they let children know when they have five minutes left before tidy-up time. As a result, children finish off what they are playing with and then help to tidy away the toys. Staff acknowledge children's positive behaviour. For example, children beam with pride as they receive a star token from staff for being kind to their friends.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works effectively with staff and parents to fully support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The SENCo takes timely action to seek the expertise of other professionals. Staff provide children with individual and small-group support to help them make the best possible progress in their learning.
• Children use their imagination well. For example, they use sticks for arms for their play dough snowmen. They experiment and play around with vocabulary to create new words, such as 'scrumby'. Children laugh and giggle at this new word. They proudly tell visitors that this is the word they want to use to describe the texture of the stick.
• Staff are eager to support children's communication and language development.
• However, they do not always provide enough time for children to think and respond to their questions. During an activity with musical instruments, for example, staff ask children questions in quick succession before children provide an answer.
• Overall, staff interactions with children support their development over time. However, staff do not always help children to extend their thinking and contribute their ideas as they play. During construction play, staff tell children what they need to do next to build a car rather than seek children's own thoughts and ideas.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff warmly greet families on arrival and exchange pertinent information with them. Parents are provided with updates through newsletters, a closed social media platform and a messaging service. Parents comment that children love attending the pre-school and that staff are fantastic.
• Children have access to outdoor play. However, during the inspection, the sole focus of the time outside was for children to collect sticks for their story about a 'stick man'. This means that on this occasion, staff did not make the best use of the outdoor play and fresh air to support children's all-round development.
• The manager and staff work well together as an established team. The manager monitors staff practice closely. For example, she offers regular supervision sessions and staff meetings to her staff. This helps to promote good practice and positive outcomes for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children with more time to think and respond to questions
• help staff to understand how to support children to think more critically and contribute their own ideas and thoughts
• refine planning to support children's outdoor experiences to further promote children's overall development.