Upottery Preschool CIO

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish in this extremely welcoming and warm pre-school. They make wonderful bonds with all staff. This helps children to feel happy, safe and secure. The manager and her team have high expectations of what they want children to learn. Staff are highly knowledgeable and demonstrate high-quality teaching that ensures children make the best possible progress. Children benefit from the carefully planned activities and stimulating learning opportunities they experience, including regular forest school visits. Children show a deep curiosity for how the world works. Staff expertly harness this curiosity and skilfully inspire children to think for themselves and to ask questions. This further extends children's knowledge. For example, children intently watch heavy rain pour into a watering can. They say to staff, 'Look, the rain sometimes misses the watering can. Why does the wind blow the rain?'

Children are extremely motivated to take part in the challenging, fun and engaging activities that staff thoughtfully plan for them. Children show remarkably high levels of pleasure and concentration throughout the day. They confidently express themselves and interact with staff and each other. Children enjoy playing board games and share and take turns exceptionally well. They tell staff, 'I'm going to play with that when he has finished playing with it.'

Children's behaviour is exemplary. They understand and follow all boundaries and enthusiastically join in with the daily routines. Children show respect and affection for staff. They listen and follow instructions superbly.

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

• Staff value and celebrate children's achievements and uniqueness. They consistently praise children's efforts. This contributes to children having a strong sense of pride and high self-esteem. Children beam when they achieve success. For example, they confidently tell staff, 'This is easy peasy.'
• The manager places a high priority on developing children's communication and language, social and emotional development, and physical skills. As a result, children speak with remarkable confidence and fluency. They engage in delightful conversations with staff and their friends, and competently use a range of tools and equipment in their play.
• Parents truly value the care and learning experiences that their children receive. Staff and parents communicate regularly. Staff are keen to find out about children's interests and successes at home. They build on this to successfully extend children's knowledge and skills. Parents comment on how excited children are to come each day, and the 'calm and caring' environment that staff have created.
• Staff skilfully use games to teach children how to take turns and to extend their vocabulary. Young children confidently name desert and jungle animals and intently concentrate for long periods of time. Staff use these opportunities to check children's understanding and support them how to learn and pronounce new words. This equips children superbly for their next stage of learning.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is exceptional. Staff use their extensive knowledge and skills to continually assess and support children's learning. They work with parents and professionals to put appropriate strategies and resources in place. As a result, all children make excellent progress and are extremely well equipped to make the transition to primary school.
• Staff know all the children extremely well. They use their exceptional knowledge of each child to plan and provide activities to spark children's interests and to engage their imagination and curiosity. Children demonstrate exceptional listening skills and high levels of focus and concentration. This helps them to make excellent progress in their learning across all areas of the curriculum.
• The manager is extremely passionate about the range of opportunities she wants children to experience. She supports staff to attend training to further enhance their already excellent practice. Staff consistently use their knowledge of child development to deliver high-quality education and care. The staff are superb role models for children. They have created an extremely positive environment that enables children to be emotionally secure, develop healthy relationships and reach their true potential.
• The manager and her staff have strong relationships with the school and other providers in the local area. They regularly discuss children's progress and work collaboratively on children's next steps. This provides excellent continuity of learning for children and supports their transition to school.