Walton Pre-School

Inclusion: Exceptional

Leaders and staff create a deeply inclusive culture that transforms lives, grounded in a thorough understanding of the diverse and complex circumstances within the community. They identify children's needs early through rigorous tracking, a clear step-by-step approach to assessing children's needs and inspiring partnerships with families and agencies. Children who have experienced family disruption receive highly personalised support, regular multi-agency reviews and carefully adapted routines that prioritise their emotional security. As a result, children who arrive nonverbal or extremely withdrawn are able to initiate conversations, form friendships and engage confidently in learning.

Leaders remove barriers decisively. They use funding to provide innovative one-to-one interventions, visual aids and safety support for children. Through community larders, holiday hunger schemes, uniform banks and practical help such as providing beds and cookers, children arrive settled, nourished and ready to learn.

Leaders rebuild children's and families' trust in the police through positive visits from local officers, transforming fear linked to domestic violence into curiosity and respect. Leaders work seamlessly with a homeless shelter to maintain continuity when families move homes, reducing trauma and disruption. Staff train extensively in speech and language, autism and trauma-informed practice. They share activities and daily guidance to increase parents' knowledge. As a result, families grow in confidence in extending learning at home and break cycles of disadvantage. Children experience exemplary stability. This sustained support raises aspirations, enabling children to see themselves as capable, valued and full of potential.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders design a broad, ambitious curriculum rooted in the realities of a community where many children face disadvantage, have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and experience social care involvement. They prioritise communication, personal, social and emotional development and independence, recognising these as essential foundations for later learning. Since the last inspection, leaders have expanded woodland provision and created areas to support learning, reflecting children's emerging needs. As a result, children develop the language, resilience and independence they need to engage fully in learning and transition confidently, despite the significant barriers they face.

Staff implement the curriculum purposefully. They weave ambitious vocabulary and concepts through play, for example by teaching scientific change as children mix play dough and modelling precise language such as 'pinch', 'squeeze' and 'transform'. Staff promote mathematical thinking as children predict outcomes, count, compare and manage routines, such as timing toothbrushing with sand timers.

Communication is central. Staff use strategies from speech and language training to model, narrate and extend language, adapting teaching swiftly to support progress. Staff very skilfully check children's starting points and act decisively to deliver focused, high-quality action. Children gain confidence in expressing themselves, increase their vocabulary and participate fully in play, including those who began as nonverbal or reluctant communicators.

Leaders' curriculum naturally promotes physical development and health through cooking, allotment work, woodland learning and structured hygiene routines. Staff use ongoing assessment and close knowledge of families to adapt experiences, ensuring that disadvantaged children and those with SEND access the full curriculum and build the knowledge and skills needed for their next stage.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children make wonderful progress from often low starting points, particularly in communication and language. Children at the early stages of using language now initiate conversations, sing nursery rhymes and use simple sentences in play. For example, children predict that play dough 'will turn hard', discuss 'skeletons' in stories and confidently name dinosaurs such as 'triceratops'.

Disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those known to social care develop highly secure knowledge of all the areas of learning. Children living in temporary accommodation settle quickly, manage their emotions and seek out peers. Younger children who initially relied on siblings become independent, feed themselves, move furniture safely and engage in small-group play. Children with additional needs attempt new words and sustain magnificent attention in activities.

Across the areas of learning, children develop mathematical awareness, independence and physical competence. They practise road safety, such as when using the nursery's wheeled vehicles outdoors, and learn to use numbers in play. Consequently, children gain the resilience and language skills needed for a confident transition to school.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Children thrive in this harmonious and nurturing environment, where staff establish clear, consistent expectations for behaviour and model inspiring levels of kindness and respect. Staff greet children warmly, helping them separate confidently and settle quickly into purposeful play. Staff expertly teach and reinforce routines. As a result, children tidy away when the whistle blows, wash hands independently, dress for outdoor play competently and move between activities calmly.

Staff sensitively support children who arrive anxious or overwhelmed, particularly those experiencing upheaval, social care involvement or homelessness. Through staff reassurance, predictable daily activities and calm spaces, children behave impeccably. Children who once played alone now initiate interactions and sustain meaningful and important friendships.

Staff actively promote working together and empathy. They thoughtfully guide children to share, take turns and resolve minor conflicts. Consequently, children apologise spontaneously, invite others into play and show genuine care for their peers. Leaders' powerful focus on attendance and punctuality is reinforced by staff's motivational engagement with families. Therefore, children attend regularly, arrive on time and maintain positive attitudes to learning. Children demonstrate inspiring resilience, confidence and readiness for school.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders create a highly inclusive and nurturing environment where children's welfare and wellbeing are prioritised and consistently promoted. Staff expertly tailor care practices to meet individual needs. Children known to social care, living in temporary accommodation or those with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive caring key-person support and calm spaces to help them to control and recognise emotions. As a result, children who were previously withdrawn now express feelings, seek reassurance appropriately and engage confidently with peers. Secure attachments between staff and children are evident. Children greet staff warmly, seek cuddles and confidently approach staff for support.

Staff promote healthy lifestyles through nutritious snacks, cooking activities and sensitive monitoring of hunger. Allergies and care routines are managed flexibly and respectfully. Children thoroughly understand handwashing, healthy eating and personal safety. For example, children successfully avoid obstacles and accidents through stop-start games on tricycles outdoors. Consequently, children feel very safe and emotionally secure and develop the knowledge and self-care skills needed to thrive in school and beyond.

Leadership and governance: Exceptional

Leaders demonstrate unwavering moral purpose and an uncompromising commitment to improving the life chances of children in this area of significant deprivation and who may face acute hardship. They know their community intimately and shape provision around lived realities, including domestic violence, homelessness and disadvantage.

Leaders have transformed outcomes for children way beyond the classroom. They have innovatively established a community larder and holiday-hunger support so that children arrive nourished and ready to learn. Oral health is a notable strength of the setting. Leaders have successfully made a case for 2-year-old children to access supervised toothbrushing and secured more dental appointments for vulnerable families. Children enjoy brushing their teeth independently using sand timers and understand hygiene routines, and families increasingly engage at home. This has significantly reduced stigma and improved healthy habits.

Leaders rebuild children's trust in the police through regular, positive visits, replacing deeply rooted fear with understanding and confidence. Children who once associated police with trauma now demonstrate a powerful shift in their sense of understanding of those who protect them. Leaders profoundly empower parents with limited reading and writing skills to engage in their children's education through simplified books, shared activities and practical guidance. Parents report the setting has 'changed their lives'. Consequently, children make prominent and sustained progress from low starting points.

Leaders place staff wellbeing at the centre of their work. recognising the emotional demands of supporting children and families affected by highly complex life circumstances. Through transparent communication, regular supervision and wellness action plans, leaders maintain a stable, motivated team. They are uncompromising in securing rigorous specialist training to reflect the complex needs of the community. Children benefit from consistent, highly skilled practitioners who identify risks swiftly, adapt support precisely and provide secure, uninterrupted care that significantly strengthens children's safety, progress and emotional wellbeing.