Wendover Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate that they feel safe and happy. They arrive happily at this welcoming pre-school, eager to start their busy day. Staff warmly greet children and demonstrate a caring approach. Children have secure attachments with staff, who are caring, nurturing and kind. Children who are new settle quickly and form good friendships with their peers. Staff know the children very well and use their understanding of children's interests and learning needs well to plan and deliver an ambitious curriculum. For example, children readily engage in the exciting, carefully planned indoor and outdoor activities. They become fully absorbed when they plant seeds and flowers. They talk about the need for sunshine and water to help them grow. Children experiment with a range of different pouring and scooping equipment. They explore colours and shapes in a sensory tray with 'gloop'. They choose to add vehicles to the tray and create a construction site.

Staff provide a strong, supportive and inclusive environment that helps children to enhance their personal, social and emotional development very well. They have high expectations for children's behaviour. Children learn to share and take turns well. They behave well and show positive attitudes towards their learning.

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

• The manager and staff have a clear vision and provide a sequenced and ambitious curriculum. The pre-school's core values are to 'grow, explore and discover'. Staff implement this vision to ensure that children develop socially, learn to be part of a community, and learn the key skills they need to be confident and ready for their next stages of development. Staff encourage resilience, respect, independence, and kindness. Children thoroughly enjoy visiting the local care home and trips to the local library.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported by experienced staff. The designated coordinator works closely with staff and other professionals to ensure that the right support is in place for children to make progress. Additional funding is used effectively. Multi-agency working is strong.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents say that they are extremely pleased with the extensive communication that they receive from their child's key person. They explain that they can easily access information about their child's progress and future learning through the online platform provided. Parents know what their children are working towards and are given clear information about how to extend their learning further at home.
• The committed staff ensure that they meet the care needs of all children. They successfully support children to manage their self-care skills, such as independent toileting and handwashing. Children are supported at snack time to chop their own fruit and butter their own toast. This also helps to develop their fine motor control skills.
• Staff feel valued and thoroughly enjoy working at the pre-school. They report that staff morale is high and they belong to a cohesive team. Staff are reflective in their practice, which helps to provide a consistent approach to improvement.
• At the beginning of the day, all children sit down with staff to welcome all children. They count together the number of children present. They sing songs to explore the days of the week. However, during these group sessions of mixed ages, staff do not always plan precisely enough for younger children to benefit from the activity. This means that some younger children lose interest and show a lack of engagement.
• Overall, staff promote children's communication and language development well. Staff encourage a love of early literacy through books. Children enjoy stories, make predictions and engage with staff in meaningful conversations. Staff ask effective questions, but they are not always consistent in extending children's responses in order to develop their language and learning further.
• Children are developing important early literacy skills. They engage in activities where they recognise the letters in their name, and practise writing them when they are developmentally ready for this. Children enjoy looking at books independently, and staff read to them in small groups throughout the day.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to reflect the needs of younger children in group activities to fully extend their learning
• build on questioning techniques to increase children's learning further.