Weavering Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to attend the pre-school. They leave their parents at the gate and enter with a big smile. Children settle quickly and are keen to explore the activities set for them by the welcoming and enthusiastic staff. They demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. Children's development of early mathematical skills is well supported. For example, staff encourage children to count the dots on a picture, while older children begin to match the quantity of objects to a specific number. This helps children to understand that numbers have a purpose.

Children behave well. They are respectful and kind to each other and adults. Children play cooperatively with their friends. They share and take turns. For example, children take turns when adding 'ingredients' to their 'cake mixture' in the mud kitchen. Staff praise children for their behaviour, efforts and achievements.

Children learn how to be kind to living things. They learn how to take care of the pre-school pets. Children enjoy helping clean and feed the guinea pigs. They cut vegetables for the pets while discussing healthy choices and their favourite foods. Children remind each other that they need to treat the animals gently. They discuss with staff how to keep the pets warm in winter. This helps to support children's understanding about nature and the world around them.

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

• Staff take time to get to know each child and their unique needs. They complete regular assessments and monitor children's development and learning. Staff use this information to plan a broad range of activities that engage, motivate and support their next steps in learning. Consequently, children benefit from a well-planned and sequenced curriculum. This means that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities are making consistently good progress in their learning.
• Children's physical development is supported well. Staff encourage children to use tongs to pick up objects and move them around. For example, children use tongs to pick up the 'wood' and to place it into the 'fireplace'. This helps children to develop their fine motor skills. Outdoor play experiences are part of the daily routine for all children. Children use spoons and bowls to mix ingredients for their cakes in the mud kitchen. They show delight as they run, jump and climb on the big climbing frame. As a result, children develop their large-muscle skills and their resilience as they learn to take risks.
• Overall, staff support children's language and communication well. They constantly speak to them in an age-appropriate way. However, staff do not consistently recognise opportunities to ask children questions that allow them to think things through and extend their learning. For example, while looking at a
• Christmas tree, staff ask children about the size of the tree, immediately moving on to explain that they might have a bigger tree at home. This can affect children's attitude to learning.
• Partnership with parents is a strength of the pre-school. Parents comment about the good progress their children make in their learning and development. They are very happy about the care their children receive in the pre-school. Parents describe the staff as 'amazing'. They receive regular updates about their child's learning. This is done through daily feedback and termly emails. Parents' views are well respected and taken into account. For instance, they complete questionnaires and provide feedback and suggestions about activities in the pre-school. Staff and parents work well both at the pre-school and at home to support children's learning and development.
• Children develop their imaginative skills well. There is a wide range of role-play resources for children to access, which stimulates their imagination and supports their learning and development. Children enjoy acting out real-life experiences, such as cooking a Christmas meal in the home corner.
• The management team support their team well. They use supervisions and peer observations to support individual staff's training needs, in order to improve practice. Staff feel that they can voice their concerns and wishes to the management team. For example, staff requests for extra training are taken into consideration and are arranged as needed.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to improve their interaction and questioning skills, to further challenge and extend children's learning and development.