Torpoint Bandhut Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter with enthusiasm. They confidently wave goodbye to their parents and go with friendly staff into the pre-school. Staff talk to them and engage them in an activity of their choosing. The pre-school vision focuses on children becoming lifelong learners in a safe and secure environment.

Staff know what they want children to learn and how they are going to implement this to ensure children make good progress from their starting points. Staff focus on children's communication and language skills. They encourage children to tell visitors and their peers about new words they have learned, such as 'similar'. Staff use effective strategies to help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to communicate. For instance, they encourage children to use a 'choice board' where children can point to pictures and use single words to express what they would like, such as at snack time.

Children have a good understanding of the pre-school rules. They know to stop and listen to staff when they clap their hands. They behave well and play cooperatively, such as sharing the dressing-up clothes during role-play activities. Staff encourage children to walk inside the pre-school to ensure their safety.

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

• Children enjoy outdoor play. Staff support children to make large circular movements in the air using coloured scarves to support their physical skills. Children enjoy throwing these and catching them, promoting their hand-eye coordination. They describe how the scarves feel soft when they land on their face.
• During whole-group sessions, staff use props to help children recognise animals linked to a song. Children enjoy joining in, making animal sounds. Staff encourage children to think of other creatures they might find on a farm. Children learn to concentrate for short periods. However, staff do not plan and implement the curriculum well enough during these times to build on children's existing knowledge and skills to extend their next steps.
• Partnership with parents is effective. Staff keep parents informed about their child's progress and ways to support them at home. For example, staff provide children with activity packs linked to their individual needs, and children take storybooks home to share with their family to support their literacy skills.
• Children enjoy playing board games with staff after lunch. Staff support children with turn-taking and teach them the rules of the game. For example, children learn to identify a food item on their pretend shopping list and then place this in their 'trolley'. However, staff do not consistently adapt activities to meet children's individual ages and stages of development to enhance and challenge their thinking skills further.
• Staff help children to learn about rhythm. Children use wooden beaters to tap out syllables of their name and to match the rhythm of songs. Children begin to hear and say initial letters of their name and identify these during the self-registration process, which supports their early reading skills. Staff teach older children how to hold a pencil correctly and how to form some of these letters to encourage early writing.
• Children develop good mathematical skills. At group circle time, staff help children to count how many adults and children there are altogether. They encourage children to use number cards to recognise the relevant numeral. During free play, children enjoy playing with dough. Staff talk to them about the shapes they have made and encourage children to use mathematical language, such as 'long' and 'short'.
• Staff have good links with other professionals. They liaise closely with the school to ensure children feel settled before they move on to formal education. Reception teachers visit children at the pre-school and provide them with a booklet containing photos of themselves and of the school environment. This helps children to become familiar and to feel emotionally secure about the new adults and learning environment.
• Children are confident and independent learners. Most can manage their personal needs without support and pour their own drinks at snack time. They know where to find their belongings, such as their packed lunch or their coat for outdoor play, and they accomplish these tasks well.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to plan and implement the curriculum further during whole-group sessions to build on children's existing knowledge and skills to extend their next steps in learning
• adapt activities to meet the individual ages and stages of children's development to enhance and challenge their thinking skills further.