Thorner Pre-School & Toddler Group

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are welcoming, friendly and professional. Children are happy and show that they have formed good bonds with staff. Before starting, children attend several settling-in sessions with their parents. This ensures that they settle quickly and supports them to feel safe and secure.

Staff plan a range of activities that are based on children's interests and current events. This includes activities that are specific to the weather. For example, children have a range of resources, such as streamers, to begin to understand the effect of strong winds. Staff and children become deeply immersed in the environment. They work together to build a model out of small pipes. They look at an instruction manual together and search for the pieces. They test a variety of ideas, such as whether they are able to fit a marble through the pipe. They discuss what might happen if they poured water through the pipes. This helps to effectively develop children's thinking and problem-solving skills.

Children behave well and have respect for each other and the resources. They tidy away when they have finished with something. They work together to carry heavy boxes inside to put them away. Children make good progress and are ready for their next stage of learning, such as attending school.

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

• Stories are carefully weaved throughout activities. Staff enthusiastically read stories to engage children. As they read, they leave blanks in the story to allow children to remember what happens next. Children excitedly recall the story. This supports children's early literacy skills and helps them to develop a love of reading at a young age.
• There is ample opportunity for children to develop their physical skills. The garden has been carefully designed to allow children to negotiate the space. Children are able to take risks, and challenge themselves on the climbing wall. There are spaces for children to move around more freely within the school playground. Their familiarity with this area also supports a smooth transition to school.
• The manager uses additional funding effectively to support children further. For example, they have purchased a range of resources to support children's social skills and develop areas such as the home corner. This ensures that all children make good progress and helps to minimise gaps in learning.
• Staff complete 'play plans', which they use to track children's development and plan activities. These plans are shared with parents, along with ideas of what parents can do at home to extend children's learning further. Staff gather information from parents when children first start attending the setting, such as children's likes and dislikes. This helps children to settle quickly. However, staff do not consistently gather enough detailed information about what children already know and can do when they start to enable them to build on children's prior knowledge and learning from the start.
• Parents are happy with the care and education that their children receive. Information is shared with parents through a private social media account and verbally at the end of each session. Parents feel that they can talk openly with staff and have good relationships with them. Parents are invited to regular coffee mornings in the setting, ensuring that parent partnerships are strong.
• Staff ensure that children's voices are heard. There is a children's committee, which meets every half term. This committee informs the following term's planning and activities. Children complete questionnaires alongside their parents, which ensures that children feel valued and listened to. They comment on what they enjoy, and provide staff with ideas of how they can change the provision. For example, children enjoy receiving tasks to complete at home.
• The manager is very passionate about her role and has clear oversight of the setting. She is aware of pressures on staff and is highly self-reflective. Staff have some access to training and opportunities for professional development. However, these are not sufficiently focused to develop staff's teaching to the highest level.
• Children's communication and language skills are well supported. Staff communicate with children at their eye level, where appropriate, to engage in meaningful conversation. Children are taken on a hunt around the garden to find 'treasures', and they spend time discussing what they have found.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• gather more-detailed information regarding children's development when children start
• strengthen training and professional development opportunities for staff, focusing more closely on the quality of their teaching.