Trinity Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children are very happy, settled and confident during their time at the friendly and inviting pre-school. The highly knowledgeable and dedicated staff have a strong understanding of how they successfully implement their challenging and motivating curriculum. For example, children are keen to explore new concepts, such as investigating what will float and what will sink in water. They learn that paper will float when it is dry and sink when it becomes wet. Staff teach children new words to add to their vast range of vocabulary. For instance, they talk about how paper absorbs water during their experiment. Staff teach children facts about the animals they explore. For example, children confidently talk about how pigs have poor eyesight.

Staff are positive role models. Children behave well and show high levels of kindness and empathy towards each other. Staff provide children with good opportunities to build on their physical skills. This is demonstrated when they confidently and safely negotiate challenging equipment, such as climbing walls. Staff provide children with exceptional opportunities to learn about the importance of oral health. Children brush their teeth daily. They learn how to ensure this is hygienic, such as using toothbrush covers. Children remind staff not to put toothpaste directly on the toothbrush to avoid cross contamination, and they discuss fluoride with confidence.

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

• The managers and staff use additional funding to support the individual needs of children effectively. They purchase a wide range of resources and provide experiences to support all children to develop their physical skills and build on their preference for learning outdoors.
• All staff establish positive relationships with all children. They know how to meet their needs and how to support all children to make good progress. Therefore, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), have a positive attitude towards their learning.
• Staff support children with SEND effectively. They liaise closely with outside agencies and implement helpful and consistent strategies that support these children. This includes the use of visual timelines and signing to support them to communicate effectively.
• The managers closely monitor the quality of care and experiences that staff provide children. They observe each other teaching children and provide constructive feedback to support their future performance. Staff evaluate together as a team daily and reflect on what went well and what could be enhanced next time.
• All staff carry out regular training. This includes learning about how to fully support all children to manage their feelings. As a result, staff implement strategies to help children to self-regulate their emotions. This is demonstrated when children independently use the safe, cosy area to feel calm if they become overwhelmed.
• Overall, children engage in activities and are very happy and safe. Staff supervise children closely. However, on occasions, staff are not always alert to quieter children in the large group. For example, when these children are quietly playing or approach a new activity, they are sometimes overlooked. Therefore, staff do not always support them fully to help boost their confidence and extend their individual learning as far as possible.
• All staff establish highly positive partnerships with parents, who speak very highly of them. They comment that staff support their children to flourish and that they go above and beyond. Staff communicate with parents daily and keep them up to date with their children's achievements, progress and next steps in learning.
• The management team and staff liaise closely with parents to ensure they know about any children who also attend another setting. However, they do not routinely share information directly with the other settings children attend about their learning and development. This does not help to ensure a joined-up approach and the highest level of consistency between them.
• Staff provide children with outstanding opportunities to learn about and be highly respectful of other people's similarities and differences. Children learn the welcome song in an extensive range of other languages, such as Malayalam. They learn about Bulgarian traditional dance and festivals, such as Baba Marta, where traditionally people make red and white bracelets to symbolise the changes of seasons.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to be confident to swiftly recognise when children may need extra interactions to enhance their learning in larger group situations
• build more consistent partnerships with other settings that children also attend.