Towerview Playschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The pre-school is welcoming. Children have positive attitudes to attending and easily separate from their parents and/or carers on arrival. Staff support children to settle in and ensure their care needs are met. The atmosphere in the pre-school is calm and relaxed. Staff promote key behaviour expectations, including kind hands, kind feet and kind words. Staff use daily circle time to remind children of these boundaries and help them put together a visual routine board to ensure they know what is happening during the day. Behaviours between staff and children are very respectful. Children's views are actively sought and their thoughts are valued.

The curriculum is suitably ambitious. Children have fun as they make choices about what they want to do between the indoor and outside play environments. Communication, language and literacy are a key focus in this pre-school. Staff talk to children constantly and they teach all children sign language, which they use as a key communication tool. This is especially helpful for those who struggle to communicate verbally. Children enjoy listening games, plenty of stories and singing sessions. They also like making a variety of marks and writing their names using chalks outside. Staff promote and develop children's core strength, balance and control using planned yoga sessions. Children participate as a whole group; they follow instructions and persist in trying to achieve the movements required. Children who are moving on are ready for school.

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

• Leadership and management are good. The manager's overview of the quality of the provision is secure. She knows the key strengths of the setting and ensures targeted points for development are set. This helps to promote continuous improvement and maintain high standards of care and education.
• Staff know children well. On entry, they find out what children know and can do and continually review this. They identify the key next steps in children's learning and plan for their individual needs. Overall, all children make good progress in their development.
• Staff provide a good balance of child-initiated and adult-led activities and experiences. For example, children enjoy pretending to be builders as a spontaneous activity erupts from their interests. Staff provide the resources children need to extend their game and introduce mathematical concepts, such as measuring, to further challenge their thinking. However, on occasion, children who are quieter than their peers sit back slightly and do not confidently participate and join in. Therefore, there is scope to enhance staff's awareness to this group of children and extend the support they are offered during play.
• Children are very independent in managing their self-care routines, such as using the bathroom and washing their hands. Children learn about the importance of being healthy, specifically eating well. They enjoy taking care of the environment and like the responsibility of small tasks, such as loading the dishwasher and clearing up after snack with staff supervision.
• The pre-school is inclusive. Staff help children learn about their similarities and differences. They celebrate and actively promote diversity and teach children how to accept this and be respectful of one another.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. They benefit from early education plans and targeted intervention sessions. This makes a real difference to these children's lives. They quickly start to catch up and keep up with their peers.
• Parents speak very highly of the pre-school and say their children love attending. Positive two-way relationships are established between the manager, staff and parents. This helps ensure children's learning is continually extended.
• The manager has established good links with a range of providers, professionals and various groups in the community. This helps promote continuity for children in their care and education beyond the setting.
• Staff comment that they feel well supported in their roles. They benefit from plenty of training opportunities to broaden their expertise in different areas. However, not all staff know how to adapt the strategies they use to suit children's different learning approaches and styles consistently in practice. Therefore, there is scope to refine staff's professional development to help them further extend their teaching skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase staff awareness and the support they offer to children who are quieter than their peers during play activities and learning experiences, in order to help them fully participate and join in
• enhance staff's professional development to help them further extend their teaching skills and learn how to adapt the strategies they use to suit children's different learning approaches and styles more consistently in practice.